Jacked Up
by ThatWeirdChick101
Summary: The Young Justice team has just arrived in time to stop the Light's plan involving inter-dimensional travel. However they now have to track down 'the Shadow', a teenager from another dimension, and help get her home. But what obstacles will they face along the way...
1. Chapter 1

"_Uuuuunnnnggggg..._ Shadow slowly eased herself up into a sitting position with her hand on her head.

_What in the world just happened?_ She thought as she now cradled her head in both of her hands resting her elbows on her knees.

She felt like someone used her head for a drum and instead of those drumsticks decided a sledge hammer would be better, and her stomach felt like it was threatening to heave everything inside of her out. She could barely move, she didn't dare try to open her eyes (if she did it seemed like her insides would stay true to their threat) and she realized she wasn't hearing anything either. It was just a very high pitched whining sound.

Soon that noise got deeper and deeper until she could only hear what sounded like fighting. _Okay, it's probably not a good idea to be a sitting goose like this. Just get up slowly._

She faintly wondered if she got that term right, but it wasn't important.

She reached out her hand and felt something solid, like a wall. So bracing herself on it she eased herself up while slowly opening her eyes. Everything was blurry, but soon it came to focus and it blew her mind what she saw. _"What in the -!"_

Her assumption had been correct, there was a huge fight going on. It was chaotic and there were a few flames causing smoke to rise out of a ceiling with holes in it. Bodies were flying everywhere some were firing weapons from various heights while others would get locked into a struggle until one became unconscious or knocked a few yards away, she couldn't decide who was on what team or where she was exactly. It seemed to be some lab with windows that were shattered.

Her head still pounded and her eyes were watering from the smoke. The fire was getting bigger, she couldn't focus on a direct escape route though because of the grunts, groans, and explosions going on in the fighting.

A body suddenly landed beside her. It was a black-haired teenage boy wearing jeans and a black shirt with a red S in some sort of triangle. He immediately leaped up in an attack position, and Shadow (after many practices in self defenses) instantly raised her hands causing her black energy to send the guy flying backwards over some debris.

She had not fully recovered though, and fell back on her butt from her own force. _I need to get out of here...I can barely defend myself. _So she went behind what looked like control panels to catch her breath and think of a good way to escape. _Uhhhhhhhh my _head_._ She thought, once again pressing her hand to her forehead. She could hear the guy angrily flipping the wreckage over and heading back towards the fight. Shadow looked around, the fight seemed to be ending so she was going to have to move soon. She noticed a window that had been broken not to far away.

_If I can muster up enough energy, then I can fly out threw that broken window. _She thought as she started to get ready to move quickly.

Doing a quick double-check from over the control panel to make sure no one was looking, she noticed a strange machine. It was where she had just come from. It was a giant circle, it looked golden in the moonlight, with a bunch of different tubes running around it and connecting to the panel she was hiding. There was a glow that was quickly dimming in the middle and it was soon out.

Shadow realized she had been staring, wondering what the machine was, to long because a girl dressed in green noticed her, and shouted to the others in the room. Most of the fighting had stopped by now and Shadow knew she had made the mistake of not getting out when she could.

Luckily her head ache was fading so she quickly shot out of the window into the night air.

She let out a silent "Aaaahhhhh..." That was better. Out of the smoke and ruckus and into a starry filled night. She could already feel it energizing her more.

She looked back in time to see the boy with the red S sailing towards her, she had just enough time to , again, shield herself with her black energy, sending him back down. She would of liked to have helped ease him down but she could already see more teenagers threw the window.

One had green skin and was flying, another looked small and scrawny and was wearing a mask, one was dressed in a bright red and yellow suit, there was also a black skinned guy wearing a red and black shirt. and finally another was dressed in green and had a bow and arrow aimed at her. Shadow only took a second to see them before she quickly flew away. She had no strength to fight all of them.

_I hate fleeing, but it had to be done. There was no way I could have taken on...what was it? One...two...five. Five of whoever they were. But one of them was green? Well it's not like she's was any different than Kurt. _Kurt_!_

Shadow stopped thinking about the people down there and more about the X-men and Sunshine and Chamele. _Where are they?_ She wondered concern all over her face as she faced the horizon, she didn't notice that she was facing an ocean as she was to lost in thought. _Are they alright? What happened? _Shadow had landed on a building a few blocks away from where she had been and sat down to organize all the her thoughts.

_How did I get here in the first place? _She wondered. _Okay so I remember our mission. A little..._ She closed her eyes tightly as the memories started to slowly swim into focus. _Cyclops had ordered me, Iceman, Jubilee, and Wolfsbane to keep a lookout on one half of the perimeter of some lab while Sunshine, Hotspot, Cannonball, and Magma kept an eye on the other half. _

_ Iceman had started complaining about how boring this was when there was shouting and...and an explosion! _At remembering that Shadow's eyes snapped open. Okay so...then what. She closed them again. _What happened next? We ran in, Mesmero was there along with some scientist, they had opened a portal..._ Again she opened her eyes and gasped at the achievement of remembering the rest of it. And stared out into the ocean and the coming dawn. _That's right, we were going to stop them from their crazy plan of opening up other dimensions, when we ran inside there were a bunch of other bad guys fighting. Almost to much...the portal was opening and Sunshine was trying to fight Toad. But when it looked like the portal was going to blow up, Sunshine was right in front of it. Toad (the slimy little worm) jumped out of the way. Because it wasn't fully night, I didn't have my powers so I pushed Sunshine out of the way and ended up...here._

_ Huh, okay._ Shadow smirked at the failure of the bad guys. _This doesn't seem to be a different dimension at all, they must have meant to just have a quick access across the country or something, because this is obviously still America. So what was with those other guys. I've never seen or heard of them before, and one was using a bow-and-arrow so clearly she wasn't a mutant. Unless her ability is to have great vision. _

Shadow descended on the building trying to puzzle this out. _Maybe they weren't really hostile. Ya right, _She smirked. _They tried to attack you! If that doesn't scream hostile than I've better get the professor to make sure my brain isn't damaged. Maybe I should-_Shadow stopped suddenly, she couldn't quite explain it, but it felt like there was something in her mind.

She could feel it coming through. Angrily Shadow focused her brain and found herself sucked into the astral plane, she saw the blurry figure of the green skinned girl. _She's trying to get inside my mind!_ The girl must have heard because she quickly turned around to face her. Even though Shadow couldn't get a good look at her face she knew that the girl was startled. Angrily Shadow summoned up her energy and painfully shoved the girl out yelling _NOBODY IS ALLOWED INSIDE MY MIND! _

Shadow landed on her feet back on her feet, she had accidentally started to levitate during the encounter, it had nearly exhausted her. She saw the sun half way up on the horizon. She felt herself being slowly drained of her energy. She realized that she was very tired , her eye lids were sagging so badly she could hardly keep them open. Peering over the edge of the building there was a little alley way with a bunch of boxes and a couple of dumpsters. That will do. With what little energy she could come up with, she unsteadily lowered herself down.

She had flash backs of the olden days when she, Sunshine, and Chamele would have to sleep in alley ways when they couldn't find better shelter. She grabbed the best boxes and laid them in the darkness of the farthest dumpster from the alley way entrance, although she had spent plenty of times around dumpsters and bad smells, she had been living in such a nice mansion for so long that it took her moment to get used to the stench once more, but the the second she did, she was out


	2. Chapter 2

**{}**

M'gann screamed in unexpected pain and stumbled, but Superboy caught her. "M'gann, what's wrong? What happened?" He said concern etched in is face and words.

"She...she..." M'gann was short of breath. Her teammates waited anxiously around. Aqualad getting more concerned asked "M'gann,?" Before she continued, and taking a deep breath through the nose stood straight and said. "She somehow shoved me out. I-I don't know how though, it didn't seem like she was telepathic, but her mind was hard to enter from the start. I was barely in when she noticed me. She shouted, and I quote, 'Nobody is allowed inside my mind.' while I was getting pushed out."

M'gann took a shaky breath, but seemed to be okay. "Did you get anything though?" Aqualad asked, hoping for some clue as to who the unknown assailant was. "Anything leading to who she was and where she came from?"

M'gann pressed her lips together before answering "Not...not really. It's all fuzzy and...and distant," They all leaned in eager to hear all what she had to say. "But, I think she was on some sort of mission. I'm not sure if she knows exactly where she is, but I might have a name." Here she paused to think for a moment.

"Well?" Kid Flash impatiently asked and as a result got knocked in the arm by Artemis who said in annoyance "Give her a minute!"

"Shadow." M'gann said with confidence, completely ignoring Kid's and Artemis' little fight. "her name is Shadow."

When they got back to Mount Justice (or The Cave as the team calls it) Kid Flash ran to change than get something to eat, before the others managed to walk five feet.

Aqualad and Robin went to report to Batman right away. M'gann put her ship to sleep and morphed her clothes to her civilian ones, while Artemis went to her room to change and put away her bow and arrow.

"There are no known Shadows fitting the girl's description." Aqualad reported to Batman.

Robin was entering the description for the third time into the computer trying to find anything related to the girl. Frustrated he said "Nothing is coming up! No police records,birth certificate, social security, school identity, visa. Not even using the Justice League systems, it's like she doesn't exist."

"Batman," Aqualad started. "Do you think it is possible that the Light has succeeded? That they managed to create a portal to space, into other worlds?"

Batman waited a moment before answering than said. "I don't know...it's highly likely, especially given the current situation, but we can't get any solid information until we capture this 'Shadow' and have her interrogated. Until then your next mission is to find her and bring her in. Batman out."

The screen blinked and disappeared Robin looked at Aqualad and asked "When should we leave?"

"We will rest tonight than leave tomorrow." He said than headed towards his room.

"Hey Rob!" Kid Flash yelled from the kitchen. "I made you a sandwich!"

"Coming KF!" Robin shouted back. He pondered for a moment who this Shadow could be, then jogged towards the kitchen.

**{}**

Shadow was sore from sleeping on the ground but was feeling slightly better than she had last night. Except she was hungry. Wiping the sleep from her eyes she slowly got up, and put a hand on her stomach as it gave a loud growl.

She stumbled out of the darkness of the ally still not quite sure where she was, from the position of the sun she knew that it was just passed noon, the the street was busy with cars racing down it and she could hear the ocean not to far off. As she took off down the sidewalk she felt in her pockets for any money. _Thank goodness I'm wearing my regular clothes, if I was in that stupid X-men costume or whatever they want to call it I'd be in trouble. _

She only managed to dig up a little change. Counting the coins in her head she only had 78¢. _Great maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to buy _a_ protein bar._ She thought bitterly, she knew that it would probably take ten of those tiny bars to even start filling her up. She couldn't remember the last time she was this hungry, probably when she was still back in Russia.

She walked by a convenience store and stopped. The old gypsy in her briefly rose up saying how easy it would to just go in there wielding her blades and take how much food she wanted, and maybe a little cash... _No. _Shadow pushed the thoughts down. _I promised Sunshine, Chamele, Storm, and Rogue that I would not steal anymore. That's the past, the old Shadow. I can manage to get something...before I collapse._ She walked on.

But Shadow could feel herself getting weaker, _man_ she seriously had never been starving like this before, and she knew what it was like to starve. Suddenly an unmistakable scent wafted across her nose. The smell of fresh dough being covered in cheese and pepperoni was so strong it was all she could do to keep her saliva from escaping her mouth.

As she rounded the corner she saw the streets lined with restaurants. All the sights and smells (Oh, the _smells!_) were overwhelming. But not too overwhelming as she quickly devised her plan. There was a restaurant a few buildings down and as she walked she saw another ally entrance leading to the back of it. Living on the streets she knew the best times to hide in the ally for when the restaurant people would dump the unused and unwanted leftovers.

It always amazed Shadow at how careless Americans were with food. They took so many things for granted, it had enraged Shadow when she had first come here. All the lazy spoiled people, throwing food away after barely eating it. That is, it had made her mad until she found out that Americans were such suckers, some just down-right oblivious, to all of her cons and scams.

Shadow hid behind a dumpster in some restaurant's ally waiting for them to throw something out. This was a trick she had learned when Sunshine had begged her to stop stealing, after days of arguing about it, Shadow had finally agreed to try and find different ways of getting food, and this was one of them. Shadow was dragged from the memories, when the steel door opened with a bang and a boy and a girl were throwing boxes and trash bags outside.

_Jackpot_! Shadow thought with a smile as the two disappeared and the door closed with another loud crash. She quickly got up from her hiding place and went to the nearest trash bag. _Snnniiit_ was the sound her wrist blades made whenever she willed them out. She always had her wrist blades on her, sometimes it seemed like they were one. Creepy she knew, but she loved the crescent silver blades and the dark blue diamond in the middle down at the base.

With a clean swipe bread rolls came tumbling out of the bag, filling the alley way with the smell. _Snniit!_ Shadow brought the blades back in and started devouring the rolls. This was what she meant for taking food for granted. Perfectly good and tasty rolls thrown out for no good reason. The others back at the mansion tried to explain to her about the health codes and restaurants wanting to have fresh food, but it never really got through to Shadow. Food was food, and this bread was the most delicious food she ever had at the moment.

She paused every once in a while to make sure no one was coming, but no one opened the door again or walked into the alley so she had a peaceful meal. From experience she knew not to eat to much, but gathered up what she could carry and stuff into her pockets and went on with a full stomach and wondering what to do for a drink.

**{}**

The team was gathered in the Cave, standing in a semi-circle on top of the glowing blue circle where the holo-grams were floating above.

"This is our mission." Aqualad said pulling up a picture of the Shadow girl they had encountered last night. "To find and capture this female who is called 'Shadow'." He brought up some video feed from last night, it wasn't much , but at the moment it was the best they've got. It showed the Shadow flying in the sky, by using what they assumed was some sort of black energy, and using the same energy to send Superboy flying back down to the lab. "Have you analyzed what that stuff was?" Artemis asked. They were all dressed in their uniforms and ready to start the days hunt.

"We tried getting any chemical or science reading we could, but nothing came up except that it's pure energy." Kid Flash answered than took another bite of his XX large supreme burrito. After a disgusted snort Artemis turned back towards the screen. Kid Flash just stuck his tongue out at her.

"Maybe it's just her telekinetic powers." M'gann offered. "Possibly," Robin answered as he started pulling up the analyzed charts of the energy. "If there isn't any chemical or radio-active readings it might be psychic ability, but I didn't know you could actually see it like this."

"Well...you don't, as far as I had heard and seen back on Mars, no one's telekinetic power is shown like that." M'gann said mouth turned in confusion.

"Maybe it's magic, like Zatanna." Superboy offered. At the mention of her name there was a brief pause. The memory of their teammates Zatanna and Rocket in the hospital after the last mission fresh on their minds.

"Hello M'gann," M'gann said lightly bumping herself on the forehead. "That makes sense."

"But she didn't recite any enchantments. She just raised her hands and there it was." Robin said skeptically.

"Well no matter what this power is," Aqualad said trying to get the team focused back on the mission again. "We need to find her, she could be a potential threat. Miss Martian," He directed towards M'gann. "prepare the Bioship, once we are in the air, do you think you could try and do a mind sweep to see if you can find this Shadow?"

"I will do my best." M'gann said as she went to get the Bioship. The rest followed.


	3. Chapter 3

Shadow was feeling a lot better now. The sun was starting to go down even more, the stars were peeking out, she had a full stomach (thanks to the bread), bought some water in a bottle (she wasn't to proud to beg for change.). Now she just had to ask where she was and figure out how to get back to the mansion.

She was surprised that no one had tried to contact her telepathically, or come to get her. _Couldn't that Cerebro computer or whatever detect mutants? If so, than why hadn't the professor used it to find me yet?_ _Aren't they worried?_ She stopped and looked at her reflection in a store window. _What if they don't want to find you._ A voice of fear and doubt rose in her mind. _Think about it, you've been gone nearly a whole day and no one has come for you. They never liked you, and it's not like you even bothered to try to make friends. They knew from the beginning you didn't like them or want to be there. You never belonged- _"No." Shadow closed her eyes and turned away to continue down the side walk. _That's not true. I've made friends with Rogue and Storm, kind of. And even if everyone in that mansion hated me, Sunshine and Chamele would never stop looking for me._

_ Can you be so sure? _The voice came back again. _They've been really enjoying that mansion. They probably-_Shadow once again cut it off, this was childish. Arguing with an imaginary voice in her head. She knew that Sunshine and Chamele loved the mansion and everyone in it, but she knew that they had gone through to much the past year and a half for them to just forget about her. They were probably worried sick.

Shadow's face clouded with concern and anxiety for them. _Sunshine's probably in a frenzy, sure she can be air headed and naive, but she was always there for me. Always being optimistic and _so trusting_ that I would pull them out of whatever situation we were in. And Chamele..._ At the thought of her Shadow felt the threat of tears pricking at the back of her eyes. _Poor little Chamele, she might be crying. They're both probably scared to death about me... _Shadow's face was set with determination._ No more doubting, I need to find my way back to the mansion. It doesn't matter that they haven't found me yet, I'll find them._

So she headed towards a gas station and walked inside. The bell bounced from above the door as Shadow strode purposefully towards the counter. "Where am I?" She asked looking at the guy across the counter straight in the eyes. She knew direct eye contact made people uncomfortable, but she also knew it was the best way to get information out of them and to know whether or not they were lying.

"Er...uhm..." The man quickly glanced away shaken by her bluntness and cold stare. _Predictable_ was Shadow's thought, but she patiently waited for him to talk."California. Jump City...er, no wait. Jump City, California." The man said, still not directly looking at her. Shadow's eyes squinted a little in confusion. _California. Never heard of that, and _Jump City_? Maybe California is a...oh what's the word. Sunshine tried explaining them to me. Oh ya, a state. It's probably a state so Jump City must be a town._"How far away are we from New York?" Shadow once again met the poor man's eyes dead on, and once again he looked away flushed and embarrassed. "I-I don't know...several miles. New York is kinda of far away, but...but here's an atlas of eastern USA. It should help you."

The man quickly reached down and eagerly handed Shadow a pamphlet looking thing."Great." Shadow dragged out the word as she looked at the cover. It was brightly colored and...in English. Shadow sighed in frustration _Why must English be so hard to read! Cyrillic is way better to understand._ Glancing up at the guy who still wasn't looking her, she decided to find a road to New York a different way. When she opened the door to leave, the man's sigh of relief was loud enough to be heard over the clanking bell.

As she stepped outside though a huge gust of wind whipped passed her, so strong that it caused the pamphlet to fly out of her hands. _Oh great!_ She though as she grinded her teeth together. _Aw well, __not like I wouldn't be able to read it anyways. Besides,_ she looked up at the growing darkness. _In a few minutes I'll be able to just fly around._

**{}**

_This is ridiculous. _Superboy complained over the telepathic link. _We've been at this all day, we're never going to find her!_

_ I'm in agreement with Supey, this is seemingly pretty pointless right now._ Kid Flash said as he ran over the town. Looking for their missing Shadow. _I mean if we haven't found her by now then that must mean- oh wait!_ Kid Flash skidded to a stop and looked back.

_Kid, have you found something?_ Aqualad asked.

_Not some_thing _some_one_. _Kid Flash responded as he watched Shadow look up at the night sky. _It's her! It's the Shadow girl! I'll go get her._

_Kid no! _Aqualad shouted, but it was to late because Shadow had already noticed the impatient speedster.


	4. Chapter 4

**{}**

_Okay, what was this guy's deal._ Shadow stared at the weirdly dressed teen who was only a few feet away from her. He was red headed, green eyed, and skinny, wearing bright-red-tight-looking-pants, a yellow top with a red lightening bolt in the center of a white circle, yellow shoes, red gloves and to top it off he had matching red lightning bolts on the side of his head with red goggles on top. "Uhhhhhhhmmmmm..." He seemed unsure of something. Shadow slightly squinted in suspicion. "Can I help you?" She said annoyance clear in her voice.

"Well..." He said looking the other way and scratching the back of his head. Something was off with this guy and it wasn't just the really creepy costume or whatever it was. Something was... She gasped when she remembered. "You were there! Last night, weren't you!" Shadow exclaimed slowly backing away as it was coming together. _Yes. Yes! He was there standing next to that smaller one._

"Um...ya!" He said as he started to approach her. "But listen, we don't want to hurt you we just need you to come with me so we can-"

"Ya," Shadow cut him off a look of contempt on her face. "I bet you do." She took off into the night sky hearing the boy call "No! Wait!" Below her. _Does he think I'm an idiot. I'm not about to go with a teenage boy who doesn't even no when Halloween is. I-_ Shadow gasped as she looked down.

The guy was following her. On _foot_. Running, leaving a blurry streak of red and yellow behind him. "I just need to talk to you!" He yelled up at her as he raced over buildings bypassing all obstacles. Shadow realized her mouth had been open to she shut it and without a word flew up higher than faster. _Okay, so he's like Quick Silver, super fast,but that doesn't mean he can fly!_

She was racing along when she abruptly stopped and let out a startled cry. The green skinned girl was right in front of her, her long brown-red hair floating in the air and dressed in a white shirt with a red X across it, and a dark blue skirt and cape.

"Hi," She said one hand behind her back and the other waving, she sounded cheery yet uncertain at the same time.

Shadow didn't say anything shock displayed all over her face, it quickly turned into annoyance however, and she rocketed in the opposite direction. "No, stop!" the girl called.

Shadow didn't care. _What is with these people and wanting to 'talk' to me?_ She heard a deep yell and looked back. It was the black-haired guy from last night, and he was coming straight towards her! Shadow blasted him back, and headed towards the beach, mostly because that was the only direction in which she hadn't encountered any teenagers after her, and because she had no clue as to what to do.

_So those Freaky Five from last night are chasing me? Why? What did I do to them except blast that guy away from me. _Shadow landed on the beach and looked behind her. _No sign of them. Can this night get any weirder?_ Than she heard the sound of someone stepping on sand behind her and whipped around, ready to take off again.

It was the black teen in the dark red and black shirt. He was wearing dark pants and had what looked like blue glowing handles in his back. The whole outfit looked like _Oh what did they call them...wet suits?_ Shadow thought. Water was dripping off of him, when he spoke though he sounded calm, but like he was used to giving orders.

"I do not wish to startle you," He started saying as he walked up to Shadow. She backed away.

"If you didn't want to startle me than why did you come out of the ocean while my back was turned." She retorted bitterly. She rose in the air prepared to fly away once again. He quickly said, "But wait I wish to talk."

Shadow glared at him saying "Ya, well, I don't." And pushed him back into the ocean. Then, with a yell, she felt strong arms wrap around her and carry her down. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed it was yet again the black-haired boy.

They crashed into the ground sand flying up around them. Shadow was slightly dazed but knew he had taken most of the impact. "If you'll just listen," He growled by her ear.

"Rather not!" She spat and placed her hands on his arms, her black energy shown around the space. The guy yelled in surprise and let go, it was red where Shadow had touched him.

She backpedaled away, but before she could make another move she heard objects flying towards her, she held up both hands causing the objects to be caught in a black ball of energy, she just glanced at them (two green arrows and six red boomerang things) before sending them back with as much force at which they came. A couple exploded mid-air and smoke covered that part of the beach, obscuring the original senders.

She heard a growl behind her saw the guy charging towards her. She caught him using her energy, and gave a small smile at his surprised face. But then she lost focus as she was drowned in a big wave of water. Panic taking her as she flashed back to the boat crash for half a second. The water subsided and she noticed it was the ocean man using his water handles to control it.

Two more arrows landed by her, before they exploded though she flew up.

BOOM

The force knocked her higher, she lost her focus but when she got it back, what looked like a red and yellow cannonball was shoracing to her. Using her energy as a sling she caught it and hurtled it at the black-haired boy who was yet again coming after her. They collided, but Shadow was instantly hit by some force. She turned around to see the green skinned girl, her eyes were a glowing green now.

Shadow blasted her with her energy which she had easily deflected, but Shadow had shot behind her and used the element of surprise to blast her towards the ground. Two green arrows were again headed for her, but this time Shadow used her blades. _Snnniiiittttt, _they cut right threw the arrows and Shadow finally got a good look at who was sending them.

It was the girl in the green costume, she already had two more loaded and aimed at her. Beside her the scrawny kid wearing the mask and and cape had more red boomerangs between his fingers and looked like he was about to throw them.

Shadow was going to head for them next when she was hit by another wall of water. Instead of subsiding though it enveloped all around her. _Don't panic! _She though as she tried to fight the rising emotion. _Just focus..._ Shadow closed her eyes and got into a small ball, her energy emitted from around her in a circle, she then flew out her hands and the black circle blasted the water away, hitting the teenagers around her.

Shadow fell heavily on the ground gasping for breath, she knew she couldn't stay long though, already others were getting up and glaring at her, wet and annoyed. Shadow turned to lift off, but was hit by a fast moving blur. She gasped as she was knocked aside, she tried getting up, but was knocked again in the ribs.

Then some other force lifted her up holding her still. It was the green skinned girl. Shadow focused and broke from her hold flying up higher, but was winded as the the black-haired boy slammed into her from the ground. Shadow growled in frustration, she caught him once more, and using her anger fueled energy, shot him turns the girl. Maybe a bit harder than she intended but at the moment she didn't care.

Than another arrow was shot in her direction, but before Shadow could do anything it exploded out a net, catching her off guard she lost a little focus and didn't notice another red-boomerang headed her direction, it exploded two feet from her, she lost focus completely and crashed into the ground, completely winded.

Shadow played dead as she caught her breath, and watched the arrow girl, masked boy, and the red and yellow runner cautiously approach her from the corner of her eye. She could feel her anger and hurt give her more energy, it must of shown because they assumed a battle position and were about to attack again. In one swift movement Shadow cut the net and caught them with her energy, immobilizing them and in her anger started to burn them. They cried out, than another wall of water washed Shadow away, When she got up, the water-man was running towards her with blue swords. Shadow had just enough time to raise her blades before the impact from the two swords came.

Shadow backed away, he tried hitting her again and again and it was all she could do to block it using her energy to make a shield. Than she was once again grabbed from behind. Before she could do anything though, the water-man said "Miss Martian end this."

"Already on it." Was the response, then Shadow felt something closing in on her mind, she was panicked and tired but tried to fight. It was to much though, and she was soon out cold.


	5. Chapter 5

**{*}**

Okay, this is my first author's note, and yes the first one I write is in the middle of the story but, well...you've read my name. :P Anywho I hope you are enjoying it! I understand that the characters Shadow, SHunshine, and Chamele are completely foreign to everyone, but I hope you will accept them. PLease reveiw and I could definetly use your constructive criticism. I've editied the chapters, I hadn't realized that when I transferred the documents my story got jacked up (pun intended) so like I said I fixed it. Well enough about all this let's see what happens to Shadow next, shall we?

**{*}**

Robin, Artemis, and Kid Flash, walked over to where M'gann, Superboy, and Aqualad had apprehended the Shadow, their skin was red and parts of their clothes had been burned threw.

"Grahhh, I'm so glad we caught that crazy chic," Kid Flash said as he rubbed his arms. "She had better be worth it." They walked to where Superboy held the now unconscious Shadow. Her long black wavy hair obscured her face. She was tall and skinny with very pale skin, and looked between the age of 15-19.

"Indeed. I believe she will. Truly she was a hard opponent." Aqualad said as they walked to were M'gann had called the bioship.

"Ya well, not hard enough." Superboy said nonchalantly, carrying the Shadow over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Uuuhhhmm... Superboy?" M'gann asked looking over at him and they way he was holding their captor. "Do you want me to take her?"

"No thanks, I'm okay it's not like she's heavy, and besides," He continued as he stopped in front of the bioship. "We're already here."

M'gann opened the bioship and said under her breath "That's not why I asked..."

"We'll need to get to The Cave," Aqualad said as they all climbed aboard. "Miss Martian, form a bed so we can set the Shadow on it. Robin, Kid Flash, and Artemis when we get to The Cave I want those burns treated immediately, I'll radio Batman informing him that our mission was successful."

They all took their respective seating in the bioship and headed towards The Cave.

**{}**

Shadow was having a nightmare. She was running, from what she didn't know but there was an inky blackness all around her. She came to to a pond, it too was black and murky, and still very, very still. She looked over and thought she saw Sunshine and Chamele across from it. Chamele was white from head to toe, meaning she was frightened to the point of shock, and Sunshine was glowing her typical golden yellow glow, so she was easily spotted. Shadow thought that the other X-men were behind them.

She tried calling out, she shouted as loud as she could but nothing came out of her mouth. They started receding into the dark forest. They seemed sad that she wasn't joining them, that she didn't even say good-bye, especially Sunshine and Chamele. She tried going after them but couldn't move, she was trapped. She struggled but even her hands were bound by some invisible force.

They were getting farther and farther away. She shouted and cried but they were soon gone. Then the water was right in front of her, she panicked, she hated the water. Her reflection mimicked her, in every way. Every way she struggled to move, and every panicked yet silent scream coming from her lips. Than the reflection was moving on it's own. It was slowly rising out of the water. The face was hers yet...not. It contorted until it became crooked with hate and disgust. She realized that it wasn't her any more it was..._No. No, no, no, NO!_

She struggled faster to move, but to no avail, she was firmly stuck to where she was. She was fully out of the water by now, wielding her giant scythe and headed straight for Shadow. She couldn't have been an inch far yet she was a mile away, coming to her at super-natural speed.

Shadow freaked, and yelled in shear fright.

**{}**

"Um, do you think she's alright?" Artemis asked looking at the Shadow. She was mumbling and fidgeting in her sleep. "Ya she should be fine." M'gann said from her pilot seat at the back of the ship. "And if she wakes up?" Kid Flash asked taking another bite from his third protein bar. "Than I'll just knock her out again." M'gann answered unconcerned.

The Shadow moaned and started fighting hard. "Uh, M'gann?" Artemis said. M'gann lifted her hand causing the bioship to form bands tying the Shadow down to the table she was laying on. "There that should hold her." M'gann said, but it lacked the conviction it needed for the team to feel comfortable.

"How close are we to Happy Harbor?" Aqualad asked getting worried that the Shadow would wake up soon. "Still 437 miles." M'gann answered.

The Shadow let out a big gasp and started fighting the bands, they instinctively tried to tighten their hold. Sweat was visible on her.

Artemis unbuckled and went to her trying to calm her down. "M'gann," Aqualad said.

"I'm on it. Putting the ship into autopilot." She announced letting go of the glowing orbs on either side of her seat and walking over. Everyone unbuckled prepared to subdue her once more. Robin went and stood by Artemis, only closer to the wall.

The Shadow by now seemed to be officially freaking out. The dark matter forming around her head and growing. Everyone in the bioship was tense, as M'gann stopped by the side of the bed prepared to send the Shadow back to sleep.

Instead the Shadow screamed. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The dark energy that had formed shot out. The bioship rocked violently, and a giant hole was blown in the side of it. Another wave came from the Shadow's mind and the ship flipped over. Causing everyone to flip and bounce around. Somehow M'gann got back to the controls and sat down setting her hands on the orbs and managing to steady the ship.

"Is everyone alright?" Aqualad called out. "Just perfect." Artemis said sarcasticly, one hand on her head which a trickle of blood running down it and another on her churning stomach. "Wait,wheres Rob?" Kid Flash asked looking around. "And wheres the Shadow?" Superboy seconded walking to where they were last seen. On the side of the table, right where the giant gaping hole was.

"No, oh no," Kid Flash said backing away.

"Did they..." Artemis started but couldn't finish.

Kid Flash whirled around to M'gann and demanded. "We have to go back!"

"Can't..." She replied strained. She was grasping the orbs and sweat was on her brow and the side of her head. "I'm barely keeping her up as it is...she took a heavy blow...I'm gonna have to set her down..."

"But we cant just leave-!" "Wally," Aqualad said putting a hand on his shoulder. "Robin is the most experienced one in this group, he should be fine, but if we are to have any good chance of finding him than we must first fix the bioship."

Kid Flash angrily shook his hand away and sat down, he grumbled "For his sake I hope your right." He crossed his arms and looked, praying that his best friend would find a way to be okay.


	6. Chapter 6

Shadow had the strangest sensation of wind whipping past her. _"Am I dreaming?"_ She opened her eyes, but only managed a squint. The wind was really strong, she saw what looked like water down beneath her, and something else...one thing was for sure, this was no dream._ "Alright, focus. Don't panic...don't panic..."_ She managed to open her eyes wider and saw what looked like a red and black blur, it was a person and he seemed to be struggling with something on his belt. _"Wait that's the scrawny kid in the mask from earlier. Crap..." _He pulled something out and looked around wildly, panic could be seen on his face, his eyes spotted her and they widened.

_"Hang on kid."_ Shadow concentrated, it seemed harder than it should but eventually the black energy formed back around her and she shot off towards the boy. She grabbed him but there was to much momentum and the water was coming up way to fast. Shadow quickly formed the black energy around them as they crashed into the waves. _"I hate the water!"_

The energy cocoon provided a little oxygen. Shadow still held the kid, _"For such a small kid he's very muscular."_ She faintly noted. It took her a minute to get orientated and head back for the top. It was a minute more than what they had, the oxygen was gone, Shadow panicked. They finally broke the surface both gasping for air. Shadow was still shooting up when she managed to stop her self.

_"Man it's getting harder and harder to-oh no...oh no that's why!"_ Shadow watched as the sun started to creep it's way up the horizon. The higher it got the more she could feel her energy draining, they were slowly sinking back to the water. She frantically looked around as the kid still coughed up water. She spotted land a way off. Summoning all the energy she could she raced of towards it.

The sun was half way up and she was barely holding on, her head felt light and her mouth was dry everything in her screamed that they weren't going to make it, but they had to. The sun broke the horizon with it's horrible brilliance making all the energy that was left in and around her to evaporate like mist. She dropped the boy and crashed into the rocks on the side of the land. _"Made it."_ She felt herself fading away, her vision was slowly disappearing, but she thought she saw the kid roll, and then gently get up and look in her direction when she passed out.

"Okay, Robin definitely not aster." He looked over just in time to see the Shadow's eyes fall closed. "Oh, not good!" He said as he ran towards her. He was bruised and sore and could feel the burns he received earlier hurt even more from the fall.

He skidded to her side and checked her heart. "Still beating, that's always good." Her breathing seemed shallow though, and her face was drawn in exhaustion. He removed his cape and balled it under her head, than finding a decent sized rock propped her feet on it to keep them elevated. All things he learned while training with Batman.

He tried getting the holo-gram built into his glove to come on so he could connect to the others, but for some odd reason it wasn't responding. He sighed. "Way to add double dis to an already disaster situation." He hoped that the others were okay. "Not much we can do now..." He looked down at the Shadow trying to puzzle everything together. "So your not as bad as we originally thought. I wonder where you came from?"

He looked around, in the far distance he thought he could see building on another landmass. They were surrounded by trees and bushes and grass. Behind them there was a small hill not to far off. Robin wasn't sure what to do. He didn't know how the Shadow was going to react when she woke up.

Looking down at her he noticed her wrist blades. He lifted one up and lightly touched it. It came out with a sudden snit_!_ Sound and at the same time the Shadow gasped awake.

Instinctively Robin jumped back and waited while the Shadow coughed up a some water. She laid her head heavily back on the cape, her eyes closed as she drew in deep breaths. Robin just watched and waited in silence wondering how long it would take her to notice him and thinking how easily he could attack and take her down.

A puzzled expression crossed her face as she-still with her eyes closed- reached to feel what her head was on. She sat up while bringing it in front of her to get a better look at, seeing the black and yellow she glanced up and finally realized that the Boy Wonder was watching her.

She got into an attack position but instantly fell to one knee. "Hey, take it easy." Robin said walking over to try and help her, he held out his hand, but she only glared at him threw the strands of black wavy hair that had fallen across her face. "I'm here to help, and besides you saved my life." He tried again still with his hand ready to help her up.

She glanced at him then to the hand and then at him once more before reluctantly taking it. When she stood up she finally said something. "Your strong for such a young kid." Robin noted that the accent sounded Russian before replying "I work out, and I'm not that young."

"Well you look it." She looked away and handed him back his cape grumbling a thanks.

"No, problem." Robin replied as he took and attached it to his back. He wasn't really sure what to do from this point. "So...do you think you could fly us back to land or something?"

"No." She said shortly sitting down looking out at the sea. "Even if I could I do have the faint memory of getting attacked by your Freaky Five, knocked unconscious, and carried away. So why should I take you any where, seems to me we're on opposite sides."

"Good point, but you also attacked us when we just wanted to talk to you. So your to blame too. And I faintly remember getting these burns and bruises from you so I'd say we're even." Robin said. He didn't sit but chose to squat instead.

She only grunted in acknowledgment and didn't say anything else. So Robin spoke up again. "Why did you save me?"

She gave him a sidelong glance before responding. "You would have died."

"Ya, but you didn't have to. Besides you said that we were on 'opposite sides' so why save me?"

She threw a rock before saying "I'm not a bad guy, just because we're on opposite sides and I don't like you, doesn't mean I'm just going to let you fall to your death."

Robin wasn't quite sure how to respond to that but still replied. "Well we don't appear to be on opposite sides now. And thank you."

"Your welcome, and no we don't."

Awkward pause. _"Clearly she's not the social type." _"So," He thought he might as well as ask it. "What were you doing at the Brain's lab?"

She was staring down at the rocks but straight ahead, than turned to look at him dead the eyes and with a serious face asked. "_What_?" He noticed that er eyes squinted a little.

"You know the Brain's lab, where you came from that gateway?" He asked again starting to get a little confused and suspicious.

She hadn't moved her gaze then said. "I have no idea what a _brain's lab_ is but I'm assuming you are talking about the portal that started this whole mess." She gently waved her hands around indicating to the situation they were in.

"Um, ya." Robin wasn't quite sure what to think. "So you have no idea who the Brain is?"

She shook her head no, than turned to look back at the horizon. Robin thought for a second, than decided to play on a hunch.

"Did you see Superman and Batman on the news last night?" He stared straight ahead like she was doing. He heard her snicker before asking, "Those are some pretty strange names but no. Why, was last night Halloween? Because I thought that was in Octuber. Or is it October?" The last sentence she sort of muttered to herself. But Robin's hunch had been correct, he decided to take it further

"Do you know who I am, or who the Justice League is?" He asked, he knew the answer, but had to make for sure. This time he watched her for an answer.

The Shadow turned to him eyebrow raised, and said. "No, and the _Justice _League are you just making this stuff up? Because if this is some sort of child game then I'm not in the mood to play."

Robin took a deep breath in. _OK, so either she's lived in a cave her whole life, had amnesia, or...is from somewhere else... _He knew that Batman and the other Leagues had talked about different dimensions, but most of those topics were about various versions of Justice League members. _String theory, that's what it was called. _Robin thought, he knew that the topic of a dimension where the Justice League didn't exist, but all of those topics were mostly small talk, few actually took it seriously because most thought it would take several more decades before that kind of technology would exist. _Looks like it's here now._

"I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Am I?" The Shadow said, she was still looking at him while Robin had been deep in thought.

"No, I don't think you are. Because everyone knows about the Justice League here...on this...Earth, I guess. You are from Earth right?" He asked, half-joking.

"The planet with all the water, plants, buildings, and obnoxious people?" She asked with mild sarcasm.

Robin smiled and nodded. "Than yes, last time I checked I was from Earth." She had a small smile too, but it was gone in a flash.

Robin was about to say something when she interrupted. "Where I'm from we have this superhero group known as the Avengers, then you have the X-men which is who I'm with, and the Fantastic Four, and this weird government type organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Don't ask me what it stands for because I have no idea."

"Huh, so you have super heroes too. This is just to weird, and I know weird." Robin said trying to puzzle this out. _"So that gateway was actually some sort of teleportation devise, but wouldn't that mean..." _

"So...then how did you get here?"

"It's kind of a long story." She said, it was in a tone that sounded like she didn't really want to talk about it, but if training alongside Batman taught him anything it was-if possible-get all the facts, and so Robin was determined to get all the facts. That meant he needed the whole story.

"Well It's not like we're going anywhere," He gently pressed.

"I. Don't." She turned to glare at him for a moment. "Want...to...talk...about...it."

_Geez, OK. Let's try a different approach then. _Robin thought before saying. "We'll in order for me to help you get back to wherever it is you were, you're going to have to talk about it."

He offered a smile, but her glare just came back. "One of the reasons I don't want to talk about it is because it's complicated and there are lot's of things that will need to be explained, and I don't know if you would understand them."

Robin frowned a little at the condensation in her voice. "Hey, I may be young, but I'm smart. Smart enough and strong enough to help take you down with my team. So if you want my help than I need to hear what happened and how you wound up hear. Because if you don't tell me," Hear he lowered his voice a little. "Than there are other ways to find out what happened, and trust me, you don't want to find out what those ways are."

The Shadow stared at her feet before asking. "The green skinned girl?"

Robin nodded and said "Miss Martian? Yes. She's tele-"

"Telekinetic? Ya, I kind of got that." The Shadow replied still staring at her feet. "Why is her name Miss Martian?"

"Well, she's from Mars." Robin answered.

"Oh, and that's some sort of country?"

Robin froze for a second than turned, eyebrow raised.

"What?" The Shadow asked, noticing his expression out of the corner of her eye.

"Your education isn't very good. Is it?"

Robin could tell she was realizing she said something stupid. She turned and replied. "I grew up in Russia. If that tells you anything."

"Assuming your Russia is anything like our Russia than ya, it does." He gave a small smile, and saw the corner of the Shadow's mouth twitch up a little.

She sighed and said, "Alright, I'll tell you what you need to know but," She stared a him straight in the eyes (or mask really) "only what you need to know."

"That's all I'm asking for." Robin replied as he got into a more comfortable position.

"I was in this team, and we were on a mission." The Shadow started looking back at the horizon, and the sun that was now climbing ever higher. "The Brotherhood of Mutants had teamed up with some agents of A.I.M. They were building some sort of teleportation device. We got some readings and managed to steal a few blue prints and Beast-who's this really smart guy but looks like a blue gorilla- said that 'If they get the calculations wrong than the whole thing could blow up.'

"So needless to say we went out there to stop them. I was just supposed to be on perimeter duty along with a few other mutants, but there were to many villains on the other side and we had to go in. The controls were somehow turned on and the thing started to power up. There...there was a mutant in front of it and...she wasn't going to move in time, and so I pushed her out of the way."

She paused for a moment than said. "They said it wasn't going to work. That it was just one big bomb. Guess they were wrong."

"What's a mutant?" His expression hadn't wavered since she started, and he was all seriousness at the moment.

"A mutant is some one with an activated X gene. According to Professor Xavier,who discovered this gene, everyone has them. But only a few people have theirs "activated" so those _lucky_ people get these weird powers. Professor Xavier has this huge house called a mansion. He finds mutants and tries to recruit them and he trains them."

"And the Brotherhood of Mutants and A.I.M.?"

"The Brotherhood of Mutants are not much, more of just an annoyance. However A.I.M. has been a big problem, they get way into technology."

"And so together the made a cross-dimensional gateway? Interesting."

"Ya, I'm pretty sure the Brotherhood was mostly for protection, they seemed to expect us to come..."

"Well," Robin said as he stood up to stretch. "How about we see if we can go into town. For some reason communications are down and I need some way to contact my team."

Once again he held out his hand to help her up. She looked at it than to him once more before finally taking it. "And by the way," He said puling her up. "my name's Robin."

She looked at him warily before saying. "Shadow. So that way?" She was looking at the city in the distance.

"Seems like the closest city available, I should be able to get some sort of wireless connection and hack into some frequency's that will let me into the bioship's communications."

She just gave him a black stare before turning to the direction that they were going to head, and said "Right, and while you do all that, I might get some fries."

With that they headed off.

**{*}**

Sooooo...what do you think? Ill' try to update reguarily but it's hard. :( I hope you enjoy the Shadow and Robin interaction, but no they do not end up a couple and no there is no slash. 3

**{*}**


	7. Chapter 7

**{}**

It had been two and a half hours since they had landed the bioship in what looked like a forest. The landing had been rough, a line of broken trees indicated where they had started going down. The bioship was in bad shape.

A large tip of the left wing was swinging back and forth, both wings were scratched and scarred. The windows were cracked, and the hole that the Shadow had blown out earlier had only closed an inch. M'gann was crying as she attempted to heal the ship, and Superboy tried to comfort her. Artemis got the first aid kit from inside, and was treating herself and Wally's injuries.

M'gann's shape shifting ability allowed her to heal quicker, so you couldn't tell she had been in a plane crash, and Superboy's Kryptonian blood gave him extra strong skin and he healed faster too. So only a few minor cuts and bruises were seen on him. The other three weren't as lucky.

Artemis' costume was ripped and muddied, she had a cut on the side of her left eye, she had a dislocated shoulder but Wally helped her with that. She had a big bandage on her side and on top of her red burned skin, purple bruises had come up, looking like some terrible skin disease. Wally had a deep black and purple eye, a sprained ankle, his costume was also ripped and torn, a nasty cut on his right arm ran down from the corner of his elbow to his wrist, dangerously close the vein that was directly under the hand, and his skin looked just as bad as Artemis'. Kaldur had a big bruise on the back of his head, he had a limp in his left leg, and his side was freely flowing blood.

"Kaldur," Artemis said looking up from wrapping the deep cut on Wally's arm. "I really need to treat your injuries. You're just as beat up as the rest of us." Kaldur was walking around trying to get a signal on his communication device, but so far he was only receiving static. His face was stern as he gave up and walked over. "Communications are down. I can not locate Robin or any other frequency to tell us where we are."

Wally got up from the stump he was sitting on so Kaldur could take it, Artemis was sitting on another stump and Wally sat on the ground next to her. Kaldur looked where M'gann was trying to fix the bioship and called "M'gann how soon will the bioship be able to fly?"

She sniffled before replying, "Not soon enough. She's so damaged. I'm-I'm afraid she won't make it...she needs to go into sleep mode for a while." With that she pressed hard with both hands on her ship, trying to send it into sleep mode. The ship rippled and wavered, but slowly went into an oval shape, but the hole was still visible.

She leaned into Superboy, tears streaming down her face. "I can feel her," She whispered into his shoulder. "I can feel and hear her pain..." He stroked her hair, "I know. I know you can. It's going to be okay, it will be alright." They slowly broke apart and walked over to where their other teammates were.

Wally's head was in his hands, and Artemis gently rubbed his back. He angrily punched the ground, "That's not god enough! We need to find out what happened!"

"We will Wally. I'm sure Robin is fine." Artemis said trying to comfort him. "Whatever." Wally said angrily standing up and walking a few feet away.

Superboy turned to Kaldur "So what's the plan?"

"We locate the nearest facility and see if we can use their software. Than contact the closest person who can help us." He looked at Artemis and Wally. "Can you two walk?" Artemis glanced at Wally before replying yes for both of them. "Than we move."

They found a stick to use as a crutch for Kaldur, M'gann flew up ahead scouting for any buildings, Superboy walked a little behind Kaldur -just in case he would need any help- Artemis walked beside Wally, who was still upset about Robin. They communicated threw the mind-link.

**{}**

**{*}** Sorry it took awhile for the update and that it's a short chapter. Again I hope you are enjoying it and that it is realistic enough. PLease tell me what you think threw reviews. The next chapter is longer so be prepared! :P


	8. Chapter 8

Shadow wasn't sure what to think. _So they are not as hostile as I originally thought..._ she looked over at the small boy she was walking beside. His skin was red and bruised,his costume was ripped. And there were lots of scratches everywhere. She felt bad for the burns. _But hey, at the time they were attaching me so it was self-defense._ Still, she felt bad.

They were headed towards the city in the distance, when Shadow heard a familiar sound.

"Do you hear that?" Robin asked. Picking up the pace a little.

"Da, it sounds like a road."

Threw the trees they could see the swift blurry movement of vehicles and the closer they got they could make out the gray pavement of a street. Shadow and Robin stopped right behind darkness of the trees that separated them from the road.

"Alright this is convenient." Shadow said. "So we just follow this road in a direction and see where it takes us."

"Or," Robin started watching the cars. "We could hitchhike."

Shadow squinted her eyes a little at the unfamiliar word. "We could _what_?"

"You know hitchhike." Robin said turning to look at her, she lightly glared at him. "Or...maybe you don't know." He turned back towards the road before explaining "Hitchhiking is when you signal to the other cars that you need a ride in the direction that they're going. So, sound like a plan.?" He looked at her again to see her reaction.

Her answer was short and blunt. "No."

"But-"

"Nee-yet."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "Why not?"

_Why not? Is this kid serious? _"Because I'm not going to just jump in some random person's car and trust them to take me where I need to go. Who knows what that person does, or if he decides to take us into the woods for whatever disgusting reason came up in his mind. We both have two working legs we can walk."

"But we have no idea where we are, and I saw you fight, with both of our training I'm sure we could defend ourselves if somebody tried to kidnap us. I really need to contact my team."

"Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure _you_ blew a giant hole in our ship! And it could of crashed some where and they might need help!" Robin was getting annoyed at her stubbornness and irritability.

_I don't remember doing that. _"When did that happen? And what ship? Is that why we were falling?"

"We put you on our ship to take you back to our headquarters. On the way you seemed to be having some bad dream and blew a hole in the ship. That's how we got into this ordeal."

Her only response was "And you wonder why I don't trust people."

Robin's face was set in a grimace of frustration, he was hurt, tired, hungry, and worried about his team. So he tried to compromise. "How about if we ask someone driving a truck for directions, than maybe we can stay in the back end of it, and if they try to pull off into the woods we can just jump off."

Shadow contemplated this for a moment than said. "Fine."

Robin let out a silent sigh of relief while he watched the road for a truck to come by, and muttered under his breath "I hope the others are having better luck than I am."

They waited for about 10-15 minutes before they saw an old red truck in the distance. "Okay, here's our chance." Robin said, emerging from the woods. Shadow followed behind him. "So...how are we supposed to 'hitchhike' on him." She said.

"We just wave our arms like this." Robin replied moving his arms up and down.

"That looks stupid." She said.

"Well you could always walk instead." Robin said coming out closer to the road.

Shadow sighed. "I never said I wouldn't do it, I'm just saying that it looks stupid." She followed him to the side of the road. The truck was coming closer and Robin was waving his arms and jumping up and down.

Shadow paused, a small smile had formed on her lips. Robin looked over and saw that she was laughing and got mad. "Are you going to help me or not!"

"What's the matter? Having a hard time flying?" Shadow taunted as she walked up beside him and waved her arms up and down.

Robin scowled, he would have said something but the truck was slowing down, and stopped a few feet in front of them. The man leaned out the window as Shadow and Robin came up to him. He was balding and fat, and was wearing a white T-shirt with a leather vest. "What are you kids doing out here?" Than said more quietly "Could that be the real Boy Wonder?"

Robin walked up to him to talk while Shadow stayed back a little eying him warily. "Sorry to bother you sir, but where exactly are we?"

"Uuhhm, Antelope Island by Utah, I was heading back towards Clearfield. Do you kids need a ride?"

"Yes, that would be great." Robin said.

"Well, I think I've enough room in the cab for you two,"

"That won't be necessary," Robin said, he glanced back towards Shadow who waiting for him to finish. "We'll ride in the back."

The guy seemed surprised. "The back, back. As in the bed?"

"Yes."

"It's really windy riding back there-"

"We realize this, and we will still take it." Robin replied.

The man got back into the car while Robin and Shadow climbed into the back, they were soon speeding down the long highway. Robin's cape fluttered all around him and Shadow's hair was being whipped in every direction. Robin had to shout to be heard over the wind "I hope your happy!"

Shadow gave a small smile. _Yes, I am. _

They were on the back of the truck for fifteen minutes, before they came to another road. However this one crossed what looked like an ocean or a very big lake to Shadow. They could make out Utah in the distance. The road was in the middle of what looked like a giant sandy strip. Dotted here and there with bushes. Twenty minutes later they were in a city.

The man pulled over at a gas station, and that's when they jumped out, hair wind blown and tangled. "Well, this is Syracuse." He said as he started working the pump. "Are you going to go with me all the way, or get off here?"

"I think this will be good. Thank you." Robin said as he turned to leave.

"No problem!" The guy called back.

"So now what?" Shadow asked looking around. Cars zoomed by on the highway and there was a shopping mall not to far off. She didn't get an answer and turned to see Robin messing with what looked to be a blue floating computer screen over his left arm. She walked and peered over his shoulder. _I see a bunch of blue squares and what I'm guessing is English._ She thought as he typed on a keyboard.

He gave an aggravated sigh, "Communications are down everywhere. I can't even reach any Justice League frequency's because it says 'no satellite signal is being received'."

"So I'm guessing that's bad." She said as he closed whatever it was over his arm.

"Yes that's bad!" Robin replied whirling around to face Shadow. "There's no way to contact my team, the Justice League, Batman! I can't even get on the internet!"

"I repeat, so now what?" Shadow was looking at the shopping center, it was just a street over. She could spot a few food courts from there signs. _I'm hungry. Man, shopping centers can be so easy to- No! I promised._

"I don't know." Robin said, mouth turned in concern.

"Do you have any money?" Shadow asked looking at him.

He looked at her than started opening one of the many pockets in his belt. It was the first time Shadow got a good look at it. _Wow, that's a lot of pockets and things crammed into a belt. I wonder what he keeps in there._ Than she remembered the red boomerangs. _It's probably a bunch of stuff like that._

He pulled out several bills, Shadow reached and grabbed them.

"Hey!" He said in surprise, but she was already headed towards the road counting them. _I may not know English, but I do know numbers! Ever since Sunshine helped me..._ The thought of her saddened Shadow, but she quickly shook it off. _Can't think about her right now, got to focus._

"What are you doing?" Robin ran to catch up to her, she was on the side of the road waiting for a chance to cross.

"I'm going to get food. You must be hungry too." She started to run across and Robin followed.

"Ya, but we need a plan here."

"I do have a plan, eat." They crossed the street and she stepped on to the curb and headed for the mall.

"And after that?" Robin said keeping stride with her.

"After that? I thought we could discuss that while we're eating." They were now in the parking lot and Shadow started maneuvering the quickest route to the building.

Robin was mad, but hungry so he went along. They were soon in the busy shopping mall. Shadow walked a ways until the familiar smell of Burrito Bell hit her nose. "Tasty and cheap." She said as she got in line.

Ever since they had walked in, people have been pointing at Robin and whispering. Shadow didn't catch everything, but it was mostly the same questions. _"Is that Robin?" "What's the Boy Wonder doing hear?" "Is he on a mission?" "Are we in trouble?" "Maybe it's just a kid dressed as him, he's seems to be following that teenage girl."_

It was no different at Burrito Bell, she figured he had to be uncomfortable, but his face was unreadable. They ordered and went and sat by a window. "Do you have any spare clothes in that high-tech belt of yours?" Shadow asked. _He looks ridiculous walking around in that, and I don't want any unnecessary attention._ _At least his skin is looking less red..._

"No." He said then took a bite of his burrito. Shadow , a little reluctantly, handed him back his change.

"So why do you call your self Robin?" She asked staring out the window.

He gave her a cold gaze before saying. "Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious..."

"It's just my name. Why do you call yourself 'Shadow'?"

She answered coolly. "I like the dark. I don't do to well in sunlight. People also called you 'the Boy Wonder' what does that mean?"

"It's just a nickname, like Batman has also been called the Dark Night or the Caped Crusader and since I'm his side- protege, they sometimes call me Boy Wonder." He saw her smirk at that so quickly said. "But you can just call me Robin."

She sipped her drink in thought before saying. "Hm, _Robin_. Isn't that a bird? Robin?"

He was glaring now, "Yes," and about to try and change the subject when she went on.

"So why not Mocking jay, or Lark or Blue bird. Ooh I know Sparrow. Sparrow is a good one-"

"Why do you care?" Robin said as he set his drink down heavily. "It doesn't matter what my name is, does it?"

"I'm just wondering why you chose Robin. It's not very intimidating. I think Owl would be a better one, or Crow. Crows are nice."

"My name is Robin because I like it better, and I think it suits me. Now can we change the subject, like maybe how are we going to find my team?" Aggravation was intertwined with every word in the sentence.

Shadow grabbed her drink as she looked out the window. "Whatever you say, and your right. Robin does suit you better." A small smile played triumphantly on her lips. Robin wasn't sure how to take that last comment, but he tried to shrug it off as he thought about other ways of locating his team.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence. Traces of irritability could still be seen on Robin's face, but Shadow had gone into deep thought. Robin finished and was watching her for a moment before asking, "Are you done?" She snapped out of it. "Da, so what's next?"

"I guess work our way towards the Hall of Justice." He said gathering up his mess.

"Whatever you say Sparrow." Shadow replied with a small smile.

"It's not Sparrow it's _Robin_." He said threw gritted teeth. "And are you going to clean up your mess?"

"Why, they usually take care of. Do you want a refill?"

"Because it's polite." He said as he started picking up her trash. He threw it away including his drink while Shadow filled her's up.

They walked out of Burrito Bell. "So how far can you fly?" Robin asked.

Shadow looked puzzled. "Why?"

"Because I want to know if you could fly us to Washington D.C. I know it's a long ways off but-"

"Doesn't matter if it was the next building, I couldn't."

"And why not?" Robin said a little aggravated that she was purposefully not going to fly them over there.

"Because you know when I said that I don't do well in sunlight?"

"Ya," Robin was wondering where this was going.

"Well it's because one I hate it, and two my powers only work in the absence of the sun. So the less sunlight the more power."

Robin thought about this for a second. "But I thought your powers were magic or some type of physic energy?"

She shrugged. "Maybe, truth is I don't really know much on how they work, only that when I'm in the sun I can't...well, get it to come I guess."

Robin was going to say something when the lights went crazy. The cash registers were going haywire and the escalators whirred up and down.

"Is this normal for you?" Shadow had to shout to be heard over the clanking cash registers and the sound of the escalators.

"No!" He yelled back looking around, people had annoyed expressions on their faces. Some guy in a suit walked by muttering "Not this again." _This is freaky. _Shadow thought as she tried to head for the exit, but it was quickly over.

She cocked her eyebrow at Robin. He seemed to be thinking for a second than opened the floating blue square over his left arm. He cried excitingly "Everything's back on! We must have been experiencing a type of blackout earlier."

"And blackouts are bad, right?" Shadow asked. But Robin ignored her as he made his towards the exit working on his blue square. "Hey?" Shadow said as she caught up with him. "What are you doing?"

Robin continued to ignore her as he swiftly made his way out the door, down the street, and near a subway station entrance, all the while typing on his floating keyboard. "Where are you going?" Shadow asked as she kept up with him. He was leaning against the railway, static now appeared on the screen.

"Robin to Aqualad..._Robin to Aqualad_ do you copy?"

A voice started coming in on the other side, but it kept going in and out and Shadow could only make out a few words now and then. "Aqu-...in...wh-...location?..."

"Syracuse, Utah, I repeat Syracuse, Utah." Robin said.

"Do...opy? We...suff...multiple...inj... Ro-"

"_Syracuse, Utah_. The Shadow is with me...do you copy? The Shadow isn't a threat, _do you copy_?" Robin was sounding a little frantic as he tried to make sure he was being heard correctly. _The Shadow?_ She thought. _What's with putting a the in front of my name about?_ There was a pause then. "Be...full...pinpoint...loca...com...soo-" There was just static from then on , Robin gave up and shut it down.

He leaned up against the railing and sighed heavily. "The blackout must still be going on, I couldn't locate where they are." He said mostly to himself. Than with a sudden outburst. "Trained by the best hacker in the world, and I can't even find my friends!" He angrily kicked the pole causing it to ring and people across the street looked over.

Shadow wasn't sure what to do. _Crap, comforting was more of Sunshine's thing. She always seemed to know what to say._ Shadow thought back to the days of when it was just herself, Sunshine, and Chamele. All the times Chamele would get so scared not even Sunshine could calm her and even then Shadow would only have to sing a lullaby..._I don't think this kid wants a lullaby. _

She walked up to him. "Hey," She said kind of quietly. He ignored her and headed down for the subway. "Hey!" She said loudly. He turned around to face her "What?"

She wasn't sure what to say "Its-it's going to be alright."

He stared at her, "Heh, it's going to be alright, seriously? I can't find my team, they've suffered multiple injuries, I can't contact anyone, and..." he sighed and said "and I have no idea why _you_ would care, let's just go." He went and practically ran down the stairs. _Well that could of gone a lot better. Maybe next time I should tell him 'everything happens for a reason'. _ Shadow thought bitterly as she followed him down to the subway.

One was almost done boarding, but Robin just sat on the bench with two tickets. _I should probably say thanks, but what if he doesn't want to talk? _She could hear Sunshine's voice "_Shadow! You need to at least try! He's obviously upset about his team, the least you could do is be polite. He is trying to help you after all!" _Shadow rolled her eyes. _Crap! She isn't even here yet I'm still being nagged to take her advice!_

She walked over and sat on the other end of the bench. He wouldn't look at her. "Thanks...for the ticket." She tried. He mumbled something that sounded like "No problem."

She took a deep breath staring at the floor. _Man, I don't like doing this!_ "And thanks for everything your doing to help me..." He looked over, slightly shocked because he didn't take her for the type to say something like that. "It's just...what I do." He replied kind of awkwardly.

"Well...what your doing is...good so...thank you." She said and tried to think of a way to quickly change the subject. But another subway came up and they got on.

They rode in a slightly awkward silence.

**{*}** You like? You like? I have never been to Utak or Antelope Island, so I'm sorry if I've gotten anything incorrect. Please review and I'll try to update very soon. I have way more of the story ritten than what I have published, it's just is the publishing part that I need to work on so please be patient and bear with me and my inconsistancy and laziness!


	9. Chapter 9

**{*} **I apoligize for such a delay. I'll explain in the author's note at the bottom and quick delaying this even more! :)**{*}**

"Lost communication." Kaldur said in annoyance. They had been walking for nearly three hours, and were barely holding on. His limp had worsened and he feared that Wally would soon faint. He had used a lot of his energy and Aqualad could tell that he needed to eat soon. It was twenty more minutes before M'gann cried. _ Guys! I see a cabin up ahead!_

Everyone was exhausted, but they picked up the pace in the direction M'gann headed. It looked like a some sort of park ranger cabin. There was a refrigerator, medical box, a few cots, and a computer but the internet was down. Kaldur had to sit on a cot his limp was so bad, Artemis sat next to him while M'gann got the medicine. Wally went straight for the refrigerator and grabbed the first thing he saw, which was a jar of pickles, and started eating while Superboy distributed some bottles of water.

"Do you think this place was abandoned?" Wally said threw a mouth full of pickles.

"Why would some one abandon a place yet leave it fully stocked?" Artemis answered with some reticule. "And you need that sprained ankle wrapped better."

"What? Nah, it's fine." He replied. Artemis gave him a look, he sighed, walked over, and sat down.

Everyone ate and got bandaged and soon felt better, although they were still tired. M'gann was getting distressed about the bioship. "She may need help." M'gann said.

"Agreed," Kaldur said he stood up using the metal crutch they found and he had a bandage wrapped around his head. "We will return to the bioship. The sooner we can get it healed the sooner we can contact Robin and Batman." They packed up some supplies for the way back before setting out.

It took them less time to reach the ship, but the sun was starting to set. M'gann whimpered as she landed beside the bioship, and gently woke her up. This time it didn't waver but shift slowly to it's flight shape. There were less cracks visible and the hole was a little smaller, but it was obvious that it would be awhile before it could fly. "M'gann, the communications?" Kaldur asked.

She sniffed a little, she could still feel the ship's pain, but answered. "Communications are still offline, maybe tomorrow?" She was uncertain, her ship had never handled this much damage before. Not even when they faced the Injustice League.

They agreed to set up a camp. Soon a fire was built, Superboy rolled a few logs over, and they started roasting hot dogs. "Well this isn't _so_ bad." M'gann said trying to lighten the mood a little. "I mean, it reminds me of when we first met and went on that camping trip."

"Ya, it's not like we're missing a teammate, have multiple injuries, and no way to get help." Wally muttered under his breath. Artemis lightly elbowed him, noticing the look of disappointment on M'gann's face she said. "So...you guys went camping? That sounds cool when did you do that?"

M'gann's face lighted up and she started talking about the get-to-know-one-another- experience she, Superboy. Kaldur, Wally, and Robin had. She went on for a little while and the subject got changed every now and then, but soon they went to sleep with Superboy taking the first watch. In the morning they would decide what to do.

* * *

Shadow was getting tired of riding the subways almost non-stop. She preferred walking, even if it was during the day, the outside felt safer because there was lots of room and Shadow could rely on her senses easier. _But in these __subways__! Everything echoes, and when your actually in it, it smells, it's loud, there's _so_ many people crammed into a tiny space, and I have less room to move! What if I need to defend myself? _All of this and more ran through her mind, however the Bird Wonder seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.

The sun was heading down towards the horizon when they were entering their eleventh seventh subway and Shadow got sick of it and finally complained.

"Okay, why must we go from subway to subway?" She said with her typical irritability.

"Because we need to get to the Hall of Justice and that's in Washington D.C., and everywhere we go I can't get any signals to communicate." He sounded a little agitated.

"And who are you trying to communicate again?" She asked, they had reached another entrance but Shadow was reluctant to go in.

Robin sighed. "My team and the Justice League. Now can we go in? The sooner we get there the faster we can work on getting you home."

"Fine," She said starting to walk down again. "Whatever you say Bird Wonder."

Robin muttered under his breath, "It's _Boy_ Wonder."

So once again they went threw the process of Robin buying the tickets and climbing on the subway. Shadow went straight for the car that had less people and Robin went ahead and followed her. They were only on for five minutes when it screeched to a halt, and the lights shut off. Shadow groaned "Great, what now?" People were murmering and muttering to themselves as panic slowly started to move in like fog.

Robin didn't answer, but tried to figure out what their plan should be, usually when subway shut down things got bad. Shadow sensed him tense up, and quietly asked "Do you know what's happening?"

"Something bad," Was the reply. "We need to get out of here." It was hard to hear from the commotion other people made. Robin headed for the exit, lightly touching Shadow on the arm so she would know he was moving. "This way."

He headed for the back of the subway, they weren't to far off but had to weave in and out among the people who were starting to freak out. Finally Robin opened the back door to the inky darkness of the tunnel.

"Ah, this is nice." Shadow said quietly stepping out. Her eyes started to have a white glow as the dark energy formed around her.

"I thought you said that only works at night?" Robin said with a smirk, as he brought out his blue square.

"I said it works at night or in the absence of light. Do you see any light," She noticed his blue square. "Besides that."

"This didn't happen by accident. Someone caused the subway to go down. I've managed to trace the signal to a location in... a warehouse in Lincoln, Nebraska"

"That's...great, but why are you telling _me_ this?" Shadow asked leaning over his shoulder.

"I have the coordinates let's go." He said as he ran down the tunnel.

_What? Is this kid serious?_ She thought as she watched him pull something from his belt, shoot it to the ceiling and fly off. _I guess he is._ She gave a disgruntled sigh as she followed him using her energy.

Apparently they were really close, seeing as they were already in the city. The got out from the subway tunnel (much to Shadow's disappointment.) and from there Robin climbed the nearest building and jumped to the next roof. He realized she wasn't following her and looked back. "Come on! We're going to lose it!"

Shadow was on the edge looking down, the jump was only ten feet but it seemed like twenty.

"You're insane!" She shouted looking across to glare at him. He jogged back to the edge of his building and said. "Just back up, get a running start, and leap."

"Nee-yet," She said crossing her arms.

"Look if you fall I'll catch you, okay?"

She was considering this. "We're wasting time! Just trust me!" He said frustrated.

Shadow took deep breaths as she backed away. _Okay I can do this. Just run and jump, not like the sun is out and if I miss I'll plummet down into the pavement. _She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and got ready to run. _Run and jump...just run and jump._ She started chanting it as she ran towards the ledge, and leaped. She was only in the air for a few seconds before her feet landed on the other edge of the building.

Shadow let out a whoosh of breath, and Robin smiled at her success. She went to step down when her foot slipped, she started falling down, mouth agape in fear and shock and her arms were wind milling wildly. In a flash Robin grabbed both of her wrists pulled her up. She staggered past him and landed on her knees breathing heavily.

"You alright?" Robin asked coming to kneel beside her.

"Ya, I'm fine...why wouldn't I be." She said as she slowly got up. "It's not like I almost fell to my death or anything."

"You wouldn't have fallen to your death."

She gave him a look.

"I would not let that happen, besides" he said as he started towards the other end. "Now we're even."

They went from building to building. Shadow started getting the hang of it and was soon jumping with ease. They reached the warehouse, it was in a run down part of the city around some abandoned buildings. The sun was just touching the horizon, and darkness was slowly descending.

Robin pulled out some binoculars and looked around. "Doesn't seem like anyone is guarding it. Let's get a look inside."

Shadow blew a piece of hair out of her face as Robin used his grappel gun to get closer. Shadow looked at the sun _Come on, get lower!_ Before following. He landed on the building next to it. The warehouse reminded her of the place where she came through the portal. Robin peered threw his binoculars again, than jumped on the roof and ran to this thing sticking out of it.

It was rectangular but curved at the top. Robin gently grabbed the covering and ,as quietly as he could, pulled it off. It still gave a small _twang!_

"What's that?" Shadow whispered coming up.

"Air duct, this will lead us inside." Shadow raised an eyebrow as he started going in when he stopped and looked her over.

"You...might not be small enough. Wait here while I go in and I'll give you the go if I think you can fit." And with that he eased himself down. Shadow listened as Robin crawled into the main area.

"Okay, I think you can squeeze in." The words traveled through and up to Shadow.

She sighed. _I really don't want to go in there!_ She hesitated at the entrance. _How did he do it again? Right, he kind of went in sideways...like this?_ She fumbled for a moment then got stuck, legs crammed into the small square shaped space, one arm inside the other one out. _Deer-mo!_

She struggled for a moment before finally jostling one leg all the way threw. However this caused her to tumble forwards, crashing at the bottom. _TtttWWaaaAAAaaaaAAAAAaaaannn ggg!_ The noise rang out, Robin flinched and ground his teeth, but the sound soon faded.

He turned to Shadow who was trying to quietly straighten herself out. _"Quiet! Do want to alert everyone we're here!"_ He hissed at her.

"_We'll I'm sorry,"_ She started retorting as she finally made it laying on her stomach, arms in front, legs leaning up against the back. _"That I don't share your spy skills or your smallness!" _

He wanted to say something else but swallowed it, knowing they had to see what was happening. Shadow tried to mimic his movements, but it was hard when she could only see his back and the very top of his head. He stopped, she thought she could see a fan straight ahead and two accesses left and right.

He finally chose left and kept going. They went along further, and once had to go down again. This time Shadow was more graceful and almost as quiet as Robin when she landed. They went farther, when he stopped and held up his hand. "Do you hear that?"

Shadow paused and listened. She could hear people talking. Robin crawled forward some more before pausing in front of a vent cover. He moved and twisted a little so Shadow could see. What was down there blew her mind.

There were a several large T.V.s glowing a light blue but nothing else, in their light were tables most of them filled with tools, paper, and charts. The thing that shocked her the most though was the huge monkey wearing a red hat and holding a giant gun. It was standing next to a black robot with a brain on top that was inside a jar. You could see the ray of a starting sunset threw the tinted window, but other than that and the T.V.s, darkness shrouded the place.

_"What the crap is that?" _She barely whispered.

"_The brain and his pet gorilla Monsieur Mallah."_ Robin answered he brought out this little wire looking thing and silently poked it threw the opening in the vent cover. Shadow gave him a puzzled expression and after he brought it in he motioned that he had taken some pictures.

She mouthed WHAT DO WE DO NOW? He thought for a moment before mouthing LEAVE. I DON'T WANT TO RISK GETTING CAUGHT. Shadow nodded and turned to leave when something caught her eye and she stopped. Robin nudged her from behind, and gave her a what-are-you-doing-look that she couldn't see, but she just stared before turning back and wording.

WHERES THE GORILLA?

He gave her a What? Expression, so she mouthed again. WHERE IS THE GO-

_Wham! _**WAAAAAAAAHHHH WAAAAHHHHH! **The huge beast had slammed against the vent, screaming. Shadow had flung back blades slicing out, one accidentally cut Robin but he didn't notice as the thing ripped open the cover and reached in, grabbing for Robin.

He slid threw the small gap under the ape's arm and the vent, grappling down towards the ground. Instinct and adrenaline robbed Shadow as she crab-walked backwards frantically. The giant hand reaching for her, it screamed again and gave a violent lunge, tearing the vent and painfully grasping her ankle. He started to yank her out, she swiped again and again in panic at his arm, but he only screamed louder in pain and used both hands to drag her out and fling her towards the floor. She tried to land on her feet and roll like Wolverine had shown them, but wound up being slammed horizontal, her hands hardly stopping her head from bouncing against the concrete.

She felt herself being lifted up and carried by a pair of huge hands before blacking out.

* * *

When Robin had used his grappler to land on the floor he was greeted by the disgusting sight of the Brain.

"What are you up to now Brain?" He quipped. "Trying to build a more attractive robot body for yourself?"

"I am not sure how you got here." The Brain started. "But I am sure you will soon regret the decision."

Robin swiftly let two birdarangs loose, only to have them be deflected by some shield that popped up around the Brain. "Still playing with the same toys, Boy Wonder?" The Brain mocked. "Here let me show the new toys I've made for you to try." With that a horde of robots unveiled themselves from the darkness, surrounding Robin.

He pulled out several more birdarangs preparing for battle. A monitor near the Brain flashed, he turned towards it than back before interrupting. "However, it appears I have more important matters to attend to so _bonsoir_ Robin." With that the robots released a light brown fog, Robin leaped, and landed on one of the heads sticking a birdarang in it. He did that working his way back wards, when he felt a presence behind him and back flipped over Mallah's incoming backhand.

He saw Mallah drop Shadow from where she was on his shoulder before taking off after him. He dodged, jumped, and parried when he could, but was soon caught from behind by one of the robots. It in-tangled it's arms painfully around his before letting loose the fog knocking him unconscious.

* * *

"Hey..._hey!_" Were the whispered words. "Robin..." He stirred a little at his name. "_Robin!_ The Bird Wonder!" The whisper was louder and Robin slowly started to open his groggy, eyes. _What...what happened. Oh ya!_ His eyes snapped open and he was fully awake. _The Brain and Monsieur Mallah!_

He realized that they were strapped to a table. He looked over and saw Shadow staring back at him. "_Your awake._" She calmly whispered. He craned his neck and saw the Brain and Mallah working on some computers. The Brain was hooked up to a bunch of wires. He wasn't out long, he could tell because the sun was still setting.

"_What now?_" Shadow asked. Robin looked to see what was holding them down. It appeared to be some sort of rubber materiel. _Even if I cut this we still have the Brain, Mallah, and the robots to deal with...ugh, if only we could send out a stress signal or something, but as far as I know communications are still down._

"_You have no idea what to do...do you?_" Shadow more or less stated. He just looked over at her then back to them, grimaced, and then shrugged. She gave a small smile, and started to mouth don't worry but there was a _Whooosh_ sound of air being released and the tables rose so that they were almost vertical looking at the Brain and his gorilla.

"Well what do to with the Batman's little side kick?" The Brain taunted "It seems like you have a something that belongs to me." When he said that he turned to Shadow. She glanced around as if to make sure it was really _her_ he was talking about. "Looks like our experiment worked, did it not Monsieur Mallah?" Mallah only grunted in acknowledgment.. "Your probably wondering why we did it and full of questions but sad-"

Shadow interrupted him. "Ya, I kind of am full of questions so if you could just help me out here, that would be great." She said it with a smile, but before he could respond she continued. "Question number one, what's a _side kick_. I mean I know lots of kicks but I get the feeling your not talking about kicking people especially when you have no legs. Question two," Robin was giving her a what-do-you-think-your-doing look, but she continued. _She's insane! She's going to get us killed! _"How come your a brain is in a jar? That is a brain right? Because I'm still not great with knowing my body parts but I'm pretty sure that's a-"

"_Enough of this!" _The Brain shouted clearly mad. "I am not in the mood for your child games! I will extract his DNA and experiment on you and thankfully that will be that last I'll ever have to here of you!"

"You sound mad." She said with mock sincerity and wearing a devious smile.

"Of course I'm mad! My plan was nearly defeated again by mere children but not this time. This time I will-"

"Of course there is a very good reason your mad." She continued not looking at him but at the lowering sunset, her face almost set in boredom. Robin looked out the window too before realizing her plan. _Her powers only work in the absence of light! Brilliant!_

If the Brain had skin he would be red with anger. "_And what! Would that reason, be?"_

"Because I'm stalling..." She said it plainly, as if making a small comment about the weather.

"Stalling-?"

"Ya, stalling. Very effective at times. Makes me so mad when Sunshine and Chamele do it though, but...you don't know who they are so that doesn't matter what does matter though-"

"STALLING FOR WHAT!" He screamed. Robin watched as the last few rays of sunlight disappeared. Shadow turned back towards the Brain grinning as if she knew a terrible secret. "For the night." She said quietly before releasing her blades and cutting the rubber like paper.

Mallah roared and charged for her but she easily shoved away and then the brain. She cut the binds holding her ankles than cut Robin out. The Brain activated the robots and they started coming towards them. "Get down!" Shadow shouted, Robin fell to one knee. She took a deep breath in, focusing her energy into her blades and brought them close to her before spinning and releasing them.

There was a pause, then all the robots fell, every one of them sliced in half. "Mallah! Activate the fail safe and get us out of here!" The Brain screamed from where he lay on the floor. In a swift movement Mallah punched a button on the computer before scooping up the Brain and hitting a button on him. The lights flashed off than on and they were gone. Only a little smoke remained.

Robin ran to the computers and found a self-destruct sequence. "Great." Robin muttered as he started to frantically type on the keyboard.

"What? What's with the numbers going down?" Shadow said as she watched the giant red numbers count down from three minutes. Robin couldn't end the explosion, but he could reduce it. He hacked in and set it on it's lowest setting before turning to Shadow who was still wondering what was about to happen.

"Quick, run!" He shouted sprinting towards a door.

"Why what's going on?" She said as he yanked it open and they went outside.

"Can you make a shield around us as you did before?" He said quickly looking at her.

She soon had them encased in a black sphere, and nonchalantly stated "It's going to blow up, isn't it?" A half-second later there was a huge explosion. **BOOM!** The sphere rocked from the wave, but Shadow held it. After a minute of stillness and once their ears stopped ringing she opened it up.

**{*}**

So the reason why this update took a long time was because my computer crashed. :( Luckily though all my data was saved! Also thank you so much for reveiwing my story for those that have, it really means alot to me. Last thing, I've posted a very short intro that starts Shadow, Sunshine, and CHamele's days of being X-men. Soplease read that and tell me if I should continue it! I have a feeling that at least some of you are curious about them living down there, especially Shadow cause she's a pill to live with! Sorry for the long author's note and long delay, but I hope this chapter made up for it! Rate and Review, till next time!


	10. Chapter 10

Shadow watched as the flames reached for stars and enveloped them in their glow. She flashed back to Russia. _She was shocked. Couldn't move as she saw shadows madly moving inside. At first she didn't cry and was deaf to the ear splitting shrieks, but soon the tears came like a waterfall and the sounds swarmed her. It finally hit her. She screamed and tried to race forward, but was grabbed from behind. "It's no use...it's no use..." She looked at the face who was sobbing the words. She buried her face in her shoulder. Identical tears, identical sobs, identical faces..._

"SHADOW! Snap out of it!" She realized that Robin was shaking her shoulder and looking at her worriedly. "Are you alright?"

She blinked back the tears that had threaten to rise, and said shortly "I'm fine." and changed the subject. "So what was that all about?"

He looked towards the flames. "The Brain was apparently working some operation here, most likely for the Light. Wish I could radio Batman and have him come down."

"The Light...?" Shadow said confused.

"An organization of super-villains who believe that the Justice League prevents evolution and that only threw disaster humanity can evolve, basically." Robin replied. He opened up his blue square, but when he tried typing anything, it was just blank. "Perfect." Me muttered.

"I guess we continue to the Hall of Revenge or whatever?" Shadow asked with a smirk.

"Hall of _Justice, _and yes, but tomorrow. Right now," He said looking up and stretching his arms. "I think we should find a hotel so we can crash." He walked on.

Shadow was confused. "Why in the world would we want to crash a hotel?" She said as she followed him. "I thought you had money?"

He gave a some-what high pitched echoey laugh. "Not crash as in break in. Crash as in sleep!"

"How was I supposed to know the difference? And why couldn't you have just said sleep?

He shook his head. "Never mind."

They heard sirens wailing down the street and hid in a dark alley for a minute before continuing towards the nearest hotel.

* * *

"Oh, come on!" Black Canary said in frustration as she tried entering code after code into the computer. She pressed her finger to her communicator link and said. "Batman it just isn't working. Do have any other suggestions?"

Batman was up in air searching for the Team. It seemed that every electronic devise had stopped working. He spent two hours in order to get the Justice League communications going, and when he did he immediately called Superman who was up in the tower along with Black Canary, Wonder woman, Flash, and Aquaman who were stuck in there.

He responded offering some more advice, but it was looking pretty grim. _Whoever has done this sure knows computers._ He'd already made a mental list of who all had the power and knowledge to cause such a massive blackout. The number one suspect so far was The Light.

Canary's voice was in his ear, "It says error non-responsive." He growled slightly in frustration and heard her sigh. "Have you found anything regarding the Team?"

"No. I've checked the Cave and am tracking their last know coordinates before the black out."

"Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve about getting communication back online other than with just the Watchtower?"

"No, I'll see what I can do later after I find the Team."

"Well good luck, I'll see if I can help get the zeta-tubes back online. Canary out."

Batman secretly hoped that the Team would be okay but he pushed aside emotions for now and focused on the mission, the sooner he found them the better.

* * *

Robin had them stop at a Wall-Mart so they could get some fresh clothes and bandages for their wounds, the cashier's mouth was wide open for most of the time as if she didn't know what to think. They were out quick and into the nearest motel. At first the concierge was skeptical. "So your Robin, from Gotham City?"

"Yes, and I need to reserve a room-just for tonight."

"_Riiiiiight_, and who's your friend there?" She said peering past Robin and looking at Shadow, who was leaning against the wall looking at the dirty white tile.

"She's just...a partner." He said not coming up with anything better.

The woman gave a knowing look, and the corner of her mouth tilted up in humor.

"Not-not like that." Robin quickly tried to back track, but she just smiled and took his money. "Whatever Boy Wonder, just don't get me in trouble." Robin grudgingly took the key, his cheeks slightly red, as he walked to their room. Shadow followed and noticed the slight change in his face color. "Is everything okay?" She asked curiosity getting the better of her.

"Everything's fine." Robin snapped opening up their door. He dropped the sack of clothes on the closest bed. He figured if he showed up in his suit than that would increase their chances of getting a room with little suspicion. _So much for that plan._

Shadow was already getting her clothes out. "You can take a shower first if you want." He offered a little awkwardly. She glanced up at him. "Spa-see-ba." then gathered her things and went inside the tiny restroom.

Robin sighed and sat at the edge of the bed. He opened up the pictures he took and tried to analyze them as best he could. _What is The Light planning this time? _Shadow was soon out, wearing the baggy jeans and dark blue three-quarter length shirt she got. He went in, it felt good to get clean, but it's not like he wasn't use to not bathing for long periods of time. He remembered missions back in deserts and jungles. _Talk about times with bad B.O._

He got out and dried off. _I really hope gossip doesn't go out about me staying in motel rooms with...female 'partners'._ _Especially with Shadow. _He shuddered as he got dressed. _I mean, I guess she can be nice...deep down, but...whatever. _He folded his Robin uniform than took off his mask, and looked at his reflection in the mirror. _Okay, so I guess the plan so far is to continue to ride the subways until we get The Hall Of Justice. _He didn't want to take Shadow to Gotham City or the Bat-cave. He could just see how angry Bruce would get at taking a stranger to their hide out. That made him shudder worse.

He slid on some dark sun-glasses, he was increasingly worrying about his team. He remembered the giant hole that was blown in the ship. _I'm sure their fine..._

When he stepped out, wearing skinny jeans, a solid red t-shirt, and a cheap green hoodie, Shadow had dumped her old clothes in a pile setting her tennis shoes next to it, and was sitting on the edge of the bed closest to the window, which was open. The cool night air drifted in, like a ghost. "Your going to let all the warm air out." He said, a little annoyed.

She huffed. "So." and still stared, they were by a gas station and a bright neon red light advertising Circle K was there, and above only a few stars shown.

"So, it's going to get cold." He put his clothes in the sack, and set his utility belt on, what he assumed, his bed.

"I like the cold." She barely turned her head towards him.

"Oh, so it's only about what you like then?" He turned on the T.V. To the news station.

"Fine if your going to complain about it." She said irritability, she stood up and nearly slammed the window down locking it. "_Happy_?"

"Very," He replied with a smirk and ignored her growl. He focused on the news. Cat Grant was reporting about the strange black out that was occurring. It was happening all across America as far as they could tell. Subways were stopping in and out, but most were still working fine, for now. Mid sentence the lights on set and in the motel room flashed in and out before the screen turned black and the lights came back on, only dimmer.

"The blackout is getting worse." He commented, luckily the subways are still going.

"So what are we going to do tomorrow?" Shadow asked leaning against the pillows and staring up at the ceiling.

"What we did today I guess, ride the subways until we get to the Hall of Justice." He sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed facing the blank T.V.

"And the subways travel are all over America?"

"Ya, the Justice League suggested it to the government. Easier transport, but also better to evacuate cities and move supplies in case we get invaded. When it was approved, they helped install it. Took a while but now the whole country is linked threw roadways, subway systems, and trains."

"Fascinating." She replied with blunt sarcasm.

"You asked." He said turning to give her a glare.

She barely looked at him threw the corner of her eye. "I asked if the subways traveled all over America, you could of answered with a simple, yes."

He frowned in aggravation. "Well sorry for trying to help teach you some things you'll need to know so you don't seem completely incompetent."

"Well I for one don't need to bother learning your trivia, because hopefully I won't be here much longer."

"Ya, _hopefully_." He said mostly under his breath than out loud. "How can you be so sure that your going to leave soon. It could take weeks or _months_ for us to figure out how to get you back to wherever it is you came from.-"

"I will. Get. Back."

"But you don't know that." Robin said and the realization finally came to him. "I mean we're going to have to figure out how to re-build that machine for one and even when we manage to accomplish that, it's like a door there are two sides and we'll have no idea of knowing if your people on that side will of-"

"I will get back!" She had shouted the words and was no glaring fully at him. His inner detective noticed her slight heavy breathing and the somewhat dilated pupils, it read to _desperation _and _fear_. She turned over clawing the cover from out of the pillow and puling them up to her shoulder. "_Goodnight._"

He paused for a moment before turning off the light, setting his sunglasses on the dresser, and crawling into his bed, it was uncomfortable sleeping in jeans, but he didn't want to take them off just in case. _She's really scared about not getting back home._ He put himself in the other person's shoes as Batman taught him, (mostly for thinking like the criminal though.) and tried to imagine what it would be like to be suddenly zapped to another planet. No way to contact your friends, getting attacked a day after you arrived, having to face the possibility that you may never get back.

He suddenly felt very bad for Shadow. He remembered when she had mentioned the X-men, her voice had softened a little. _I promise, I'll do whatever it takes to help get you back to your home. _And with that he went to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**It was in the middle of the night. Artemis was taking watch when she heard something. The sound was faint, like it was far off. She went over to Superboy. "Superboy...Superboy..." She whispered, trying not to wake up the others. He stirred, than sat up. "****_What_****?" **

"Do you here that?" She asked, knowing full well that if she could here it he most definitely could. He cocked his head towards the sound, face set in concentration. "Ya, it sounds like a plane."

"Maybe we can flag it down, I'll wake the others." She said. Than went over and got everyone up. They quickly made the fire brighter and waited while the sound grew closer. They were all hoping and praying that it would notice them and land.

Finally it came into view. It was all black and narrow. _Batman's jet!_ They thought with joy. It lowered itself several feet above the tree line, wind whipped around them. A ladder was lowered, with Batman on it. Artemis never thought she would be so happy to see him.

He hit the ground and seemingly glided over, studying them. Aqualad took a few steps up to him, trying not to lean on his cane to much. The first question that came to mind that Batman wanted to ask was 'Where's Robin?', but he refrained and asked instead. "What happened?"

Aqualad responded. "We managed to apprehend the Shadow, and Miss Martian put her to sleep for the flight back to the cave. During the trip the Shadow caused a giant hole in the wall and the bioship rocked and flipped. She and," He took a quick breath to steady himself. "And Robin either fell out or the Shadow took him as a hostage. Miss Martian tried to land the bioship but it crashed. When we arrived we searched the area, but only found an abandoned cabin. Luckily it had a few medical supplies and some food."

Batman's eyes hide widened slightly at the mention of Robin falling out of the ship, but he set emotion aside and asked. "If the Shadow was asleep as you say, than could this have been done unintentionally?"

"At first that is what we suspected." Aqualad said, than he brought up Robin's earlier transmission. "Until we heard this."

Static then "_Robin to Aqualad _do you copy *churr*?" "Aqualad to Robin. What is your location?" "*chuuuuuur cha*tah...Sy...*chuurr*" "Do you copy? We have suffered multiple injuries. Robin are you there? Are you okay?" "The Shadow is*chaaaa*ing me...you cop? _The Shadow_...*churrrr* a threat, _do you copy_?" "Robin! Be carefull!We will try to pinpoint your location and come to you soon." Static fill the air. "Robin are you there! Robin! _Robin!_"

Dread had started creeping inside Batman as cold as frost and as heavy as lead. It was harder to shove it aside, but he managed it and said. "I'll take you to the cave, report to the Justice League, and start a search for him while you five-"

"No!" Wally said walking up. "If your going after Robin, I'm coming too!"

Batman glared at him, but before saying anything Artemis whispered in Wally's ear. "You won't do Robin any good if your injured like that. You'll only slow them down. We can go to the cave and get well and that way everyone will be able to help, and our chances of finding him faster will be better."

Wally looked like he wanted to argue more but held his tongue and looked down. Batman picked up right where he had left off. "While you five heal. Let's go." They climbed up, M'gann lifting Aqualad cause his limp prevented him from going up the ladder. Than they all crowded into the small space. She looked at her ship. A pained expression crossed her face as she felt it cry out at them leaving it behind. She buried her face in Superboy's shoulder. _Robin's gone with a dangerous shadow chasing him, everyone is hurt, and now I'm leaving my bioship injured and alone in the forest!_ It had to be the worst day of her life. The jet took off, everyone grim.

* * *

When Shadow had snapped at Robin and gotten under the covers she felt herself nearly hyper ventilating at what she just realized. _I may never get back._ She was far from being any science person (on the account that she couldn't read English.) but it hadn't occurred to her all the coincidences that needed to happen for her to transport. For one they were talking about crossing _dimensions_, and for two it took both teleporters going _at the same time_ to get her here. The possibilities of that happening twice she knew were exceptionally unlikely.

_I may never get back._ She thought again. _I may never see Sunshine or Chamele again. I may never see Rogue again who is the only real friend I have at the moment. I may never see Storm, who was forever patient with me, or endure another one of Wolverine's training exercises, or see Bobby and Kurt being their idiotic selves, or have to listen to Kitty, Jane, Sunshine, Jubilee, Amara, and Rahne talk about clothes, or listen to Beast talking about nature during one of his 'educational hikes', or sit in the giant living room watching a movie with everyone and almost feeling like this could be actually be a home..._

Shadow had to stop herself. She was breathing to fast and tears nearly spilled over. She placed her hands over her head and curled herself up in a ball. _Get a hold of yourself! I'm not some little kid who needs to be coddled. The situation is far form being okay, but for crying out loud! Sobbing like a baby won't solve anything and get me anywhere. I just need to calm down and think this through like I did all the other times. _

_If it worked once, me being blasted to another dimension, it can happen again. It will. Think about Sunshine and Chamele, get it together for their sake, get it together so they won't have to worry and you'll see them again._ She remembered a time, shortly after she and Sunshine found Chamele wandering in the woods, when they were staying inside that cave during winter. She kept on trying to find the nearest town, but so far hadn't seen a hint of any other civilization. Sunshine was getting sick, and hunting was bad so all three were starving.

She remembered the night, after they had fallen asleep, it was a full moon, and she had curled up in this same position wanting to scream and cry. She couldn't cure Sunshine who was getting worse, she couldn't feed them they'd been surviving on plants and hot water, she could barely keep them safe and sheltered from the cold. It would have been so easy to just leave during the night and go off on her own. It had been so tempting to just shuck all this responsibility and run.

She had turned over to peer at them, sleeping next to each other under the thin and tattered blanket shivering now and then. They trusted her. They _trusted_..._her_. She watched Sunshine's sickly pale face, her arm was draped over Chamele to try and keep her warm. Shadow looked at Chamele's face, all innocent. That was the night Shadow was set in determination to do everything in her power to protect and watch over them. To keep them safe, even if it killed her, she promised that she would never abandon them as long as they needed her.

All sniffles and fear were gone. _Even if they may not _need_ me. They don't deserve to have me disappear off the face of the planet, without even getting to say good-bye. I will find you again. In all that is in me, I will find you again._

Shadow didn't need to sleep, the night air could give her plenty of energy, but something just seemed to lure her into it and she was soon out like a light.

She felt being pulled. At first she tried to fight it, but it was to strong. _A thousand colors swirled past her, blurring and shifting going at the speed of sound. They made a tunnel around her and she was sped to the end. It all happened in the blink of an eye. At the end of the tunnel, she saw the inside of the mansion. It was a hall way and Chamele was there, looking at her. "Chamele!" Shadow called trying to get closer, but couldn't move._

_Chamele was clutching one of her three unicorns. It was the black one with a white mane, silver horn, and ice blue eyes that used to be red, but Chamele had changed them so it looked more like Shadow. She was still just staring at her no matter how many times Shadow yelled. Finally her lips slowly formed the question. "Shadow?" Sunshine appeared by her, kneeling down and setting a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes were red and wet with tears._

_"__Chamele who are you talking to?" Shadow read the words Sunshine spoke. Chamele pointed in the direction and said. "Sunshine, look! It's Shadow!" Sunshine turned than said. "Chamele no one is there. This isn't a game. Come one let's go." _

_"__Sunshine! Sunshine!" Shadow screamed, trying to get Sunshine's attention. Chamele started crying, and sobbed. "She's trying Sunshine! You can't see it but she's trying to come back to us!" Shadow was frantic now. "I am! I am! And I will, I will get back to you!"_

_All of a sudden she was being shaken, like there was an earthquake. The last the thing she saw was Sunshine pulling Chamele in for an embrace as they cried. She saw Chamele start to turn, red rimmed eyes, skin, and hair all turned gray._

_The shaking was worse until she was turning over and over. Someone was there, she brought her blades out with the intention of slicing the person in half who had drug her away from Sunshine and Chamele._

**{*}**

What did you think? I hope your still enjoying it so far! The reason the first few sentences were in bold was because for some reason they were super tiny, and since I'd prefer my readers to not need a magnifier glass to read I set them in bold.

The reason for this some what quicker update is that I'm going to do a poll. I know I don't have _that_ many followers but anyways. For those of you who don't know the Teen Titans (fan scream here) are coming back in 2013 for a new season! I was wanting to write a story in tribute to that but I'm not sure which one I want to do, so please decide for me! Also if you have any ideas for me to write leave them in a review please!


	12. Chapter 12

**{*}**

Totally did not mean to go all AWOL on you guys! I'm SO sorry! I've been busy with school and kept on putting off FanFiction so I apologize that it took me so long. So in honor of FALL BREAK and being weeks since I last updated, here's an extra long chaoter for you! Enjoy!

Robin woke up and listened. _Something woke me up. What was it?_ He heard Shadow mumble then turn in her sleep. _Ah, it was only her. Man she sure is a restless sleeper._ He looked at the clock, glowing red lights told him that it was 5:58. Through a gap in the curtains he could tell that the sun was coming out. _Better go ahead and get up. Faster we move, the faster we can get to The Hall of Justice._

He stood and stretched, clothes slightly wrinkled from sleeping in them. He packed up everything they had except Shadow's shoes and socks and went to wake her up. She was saying something in her sleep. He paused to hear what it was. "Chamele...sunshine...chamele..." over and over. _Strange. I wonder who they are._ All of a sudden she screamed "Sunshine! Chamele!"

Robin stated shaking her. "Shadow...Shadow wake up! Wake up Shadow!" He shook her more and more than. _Snit!_ "Whoa!" He barely dodged the edge of her scythe-knife thing as it ripped the blanket. Shadow herself jumped and was on the bed. A knife up by her chin and the other a little lower under it. Robin stood back with his hands up, it took her a minute to focus and recognize him. When she did she let out a big breath and got down, knives slipping back into her bracelets.

"Is everything okay?" He asked as she inspected the damage done to the covers. "Da." Was her only response. She shrugged at the blanket and went to put her shoes on. Robin wasn't letting her off that easy though. "That's the third time something weird like that has happened to you. What's going on?"

She didn't answer but started heading for the door. Robin reached for her shoulder and turned her around much to her dislike. "Look, you can tell me anything." He gave her a friendly smile but she only glared. "Are you going to let this go." She asked.

Robin's face hardened in determination and replied. "No, I'm not going to let it go. If something keeps on bothering you like this than you should talk about it. Not keep it bottled up. It could start affecting your ability to fight and think. So again I ask, what's been bothering you?"

Her glare intensified and she started. "What's been bothering is that I'm in a strange place on a strange planet. With no way home and I'm stuck riding subways with a guy who calls himself _Robin_ and who is determined to find his team, the _same team_ that attacked me and tried to kidnap me. _Now_," She had been taking steps toward Robin and he had backed away and was now leaning against the AC machine. "If you think any of that is going to affect my ability to _fight_, than we can test that theory right here right now, Blue Jay."

She stood there for a second before storming out the door. _What a-!_ It took all of Robin's control and training to not follow through with the idea of just ditching her and heading back to Gotham by himself. _Remember. No matter how frustrating she is remember what it would be like in her shoes and in a situation she's been thrown in to._

Despite all his best efforts though it was still hard to follow her out that door and find the nearest subway station. _I wish I was with Bruce other than her. _To take his mind off of the current situation, he wondered again how his team was doing.

Canary's face looked slightly stricken. She was in the cave with Batman and had just heard the transmission between Aqualad and Robin. She, Superman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman had finally managed to get the Zeta-tubes working.

While the Team was getting their injuries fixed by Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter, Batman was debriefing Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, and Red Tornado on what happened.

"It sounded like he said that she was chasing her." Green Arrow stated.

"And that this _Shadow_ is a threat." Green Lantern added.

"Do you suppose that the Shadow is behind the blackout?" Superman asked.

"It's probable." Batman replied. "However, since the Light was the one who brought her here, I'm assuming that they're most likely doing this."

Superman nodded, than said. "So locating this Shadow is our top priority."

Batman answered. "No. The Team will search for the Shadow. The Justice League needs to find out why the Light is doing this and try to counter-act the blackout."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Canary spoke. Batman turned to her as is she was really questioning his choices.

"I mean." Canary shifted her weight to her left foot and crossed her arms, feeling defenseful than annoyed that she should even feel that way at all. She had a right to voice her own opinion, even if it was Batman. "They've been through a lot shouldn't they rest and get their health back?"

"The Team is healing quickly, and if we try to leave them out of the search they'll go on their own anyways. Also Zatana and Rocket are ready for combat too. I've spoken with the doctors, they said that the girls can leave and resume training."

"Alright," Canary said. There was so much to be done that she didn't want to push the matter further. She had really grown to care for these kids over the last year. "When do we start."

"Now." Batman turned, cape fluttering gently behind him, and swiftly walked to where the Team was to tell them what was going to happen.

They were more than eager to here the news. Especially that Zatana and Rocket would be joining them. They were still sore, and Aqualad limped slightly, but they refused to back down. If Robin was in danger, then they would do everything in their power to hunt down this Shadow and take her in.

Afternoon came and passed. Not a word had been said between them. Subway after subway, fast food, and silence was the way they traveled. At last they came from out of the subway tunnel and into Gotham! Robin couldn't help but breathe in the fresh, slightly polluted, air and stretch his arms up and to the side. _Finally! I've had enough of subways to last me a lifetime!_

"Are we _done_." Shadow asked, her face seemed set in a permanent scowl and her arms were crossed. Robin rolled his eyes. "You seriously need to let loose and feel the aster sometimes." He walked down the sidewalk, their previous fight seemed to be forgotten and he was happy not to hold a grudge against someone who carried knives sharp enough to cut him in half.

"Feel the _what_?" She caught up to him and gave him a quizzical look.

"Aster. It's the opposite of disaster." Robin replied, he was so happy to be back in his (and Batman's) city that he didn't mind having to explain his playing with the English language.

Shadow still looked unsure. "But I thought aster was a..." She seemed to be struggling for the word. "A..._par-en_ word, and you don't take me for the type to say paren words?"

Robin stopped to look at her and opened his mouth to say something when he realized what she was asking. Instantly he burst into laughter. Shadow went back to her scowl.

"No!" He turned and continued walking. "I said _aster_ not...that other word! Aster means everything's good and going well."

She mumbled something under her breath in Russian. Robin knew he needed to contact the Team soon or Batman. He thought about going on to the Bat-Cave himself, but didn't want to leave Shadow alone. _I guess we'll just keep going to Washington._

He was exhausted of subways and a walk through Gotham Central park would do them both good. The sun was setting and the leaves looked a lovely green. _I bet Shadow's enjoying the sunset._ To him the sun going down in summer meant he and Batman could go out and fight crime together.

He was pulled from his reminiscence by Shadow stopping in her tracks. She was looking at an ice cream cart where a mom and two kids were just leaving with the delicious treats in their hands. There was a look of desire and pain in her eyes as she stared at the cart.

_I'm going to go out on a limb on this one..._ Robin thought sarcasticly. "Do you want some?"

When he spoke she reminded him of a little kid who had been told that they were going to get that long asked for puppy for Christmas.

"Mor-o-zchen-air?" She seemed afraid to ask for fear of being let down. He pulled out a ten dollar bill and went up to the guy and ordered two cones that had two scoops of chocolate and two scooped of vanilla ice cream on each.

A ghost of a smile was on her mouth, not the sarcastic-condescending-like one but a genuine smile, as she took one of the ice creams.

They went back to walking, still in complete silence. Robinthought about his team, what they were doing and if they were close to finding him, there was no doubt in his mind that they would eventually come for him and Shadow. Then he thought of Zatana. _Zatana would really enjoy this. Walking around the park, not to many people, me and her, the way the sinking sun would send it's light on her raven black hair as it gently bounced up and down in rhythm with that little jump she has in her step._

As if cold water had been splashed on him he stopped his daydreaming and quickly shot a glance over at Shadow to see if she noticed the hardly detectable redness in his cheeks. Her attention was fully devoted to the ice cream however. _Thank goodness! The last thing I need is her to start on me and...Zatana. Come on Robin! Get a hold of yourself! You need to focus on the mission not...other things._

He shook his head slightly to help clear his mind. _What Batman would've done if he caught you daydreaming on a mission!_ To distract himself further he licked his ice cream and took another glance at Shadow who had swallowed the first scoop and was half way through the second.

_I wonder what her fascination with ice cream is? Maybe it has some sort of childhood connection, or sentimental meaning to her. Ugh, I wonder how the Team is doing..._

He went over what he should do in order to contact them. After twenty minutes they rounded a corner where a dispersed crowd had gathered and just finished laughing at the people performing in and around a gazebo.

"Come on, let's check it out." Robin said, smiling because he realized that the people in the gazebo were doing some sort of comedy play, he just wasn't sure what it was.

"Huh?" Was Shadows response as she was disturbed from her ice cream fever. When she noticed Robin walking off she followed. By the time they walked closer and through the crowd Shadow's ice cream had vanished and it took her a moment (after eating the cone) to noticed Robin's stunned expression and take in the scene.

Across the gazebo entrance that faced them was a make-shift banner that read _Starkid Productions! _And in the middle was a guy dressed up like Batman only more...kid styled. There was another short kid who was dressed up like Robin only in that same stupid style.

They were both battling various incarnations of villains that he and Batman actually fought! Then they exited the 'stage' and some news reporter lady came on supposedly showing interview clips from people and their opinion on him and Batman. Then they broke out into song! About how much he _sucked_!

Everyone burst out into laughter again. _Don't these people care at all about what Batman and I do for them? _He turned to tell Shadow that they were leaving when he noticed that _she_ was laughing! Her eyes were closed and her body nodded up and down in silent giggles as they continued singing about how unimportant he and Batman were.

"_Shadow_!" He said in disbelief.

"What? It's funny!" She said looking at him. Robin was mad, embarrassed, and confused all at once. _To many emotions!_ He turned cut threw the ever growing crowd. Shadow was right behind him. "Oh, come on! Don't get so mad."

They were outside the fringes of the gathering people now. "How could I not get mad! After everything you do for a city they go out and do something like that!" Upon observance he noticed big boards, news cameras, and chairs set up. All advertising _Vote Baitors for Mayor!_ Robin ground his teeth in understanding. _So it's a political campaign._

"Don't get your feathers in a bundle, and eat your Mor-o-zchen-air before it get all over your hand." Shadow said. Robin looked down and noticed that he had forgotten his ice cream. It was dripping all over the cone and starting gathering on his hand, he was also holding it to tight and the shell was cracking.

He immediately starting licking it all up, but still managed to turn and glare as ,apparently, Baitors started his interview with the host. "Let's go." Me mumbled.

Now his mood was down and not even the ice cream helped. He went and sat on a park bench a ways from where the commotion was. Shadow was silent as she sat on the other end. When he was almost done with his cone she spoke up not looking at him.

"So where do we go from here? Are we close to the Wall of the Law?"

"_Hall of Justice_." He ate his last bite of cone before continuing. "And not really. We're in Gotham City."

"Are we going to have to ride more subways?" She asked. He could tell she was just as sick of them as he was.

"Probably. Unless you want to take bus after bus to Washington."

She shuddered, then glanced at the sky. The sun was disappearing. Bright lights had been set up where the campaign wads and shown through the trees.

"You know, if Washington isn't to far away from here I could just fly us."

It had to be hundreds of miles from Chicago to Washington. Robin wasn't sure she could make it.

"I don't know. It doesn't seem like a good idea unless you think you could carry me and fly for hours."

She shrugged. "If it stays dark enough."

Robin was doubting this when terrified screams erupted from the campaign area, crashes and lights being broken echoed through the park. Streams of people rushed around everywhere and a fog slowly crept after them.

Robin jumped on the bench then into some trees. He recognized this fog. _Scarecrow. What are you up to?_ If it was just Scarecrow than he and Shadow could probably take him.

He buckled on his utility belt and brought out his portable gas mask. Shadow floated next to him, black energy shrouded her. "What's going on?"

"Scarecrow. Try not to breathe in the gas. It will cause you to hallucinate." He climbed a tree then leaped from branch to branch with Shadow at his shoulder until he came to the clearing with the gazebo.

Sure enough in the middle of it was Scarecrow spraying fog from what appeared to be an exterminators tank. Lights had fallen, the banner fell and had been trampled on, and the Scarecrow laughed menacingly from where he stood.

Giving out his trademark laugh, Robin jumped, threw a bomb at Scarecrow, and landed on top of the gazebo. There was a boom, but not from under him, to his side. _Rats! He has some dort of shield! How does he have a shield?_

Then he spotted Wizard. Arms out stretched with a cane in his right hand saying incantations. _Drat! Things just got more complicated! _He threw a bat-a-rang at the hand holding the cane. "Aih!" He cried out in fright clutching his hand.

Robin flipped off the gazebo. "What's the matter Wizard? Got rejected by your other freaky-class friends so you had to join up with Scarecrow?"

"You little pest!" Wizard shouted. Robin hadn't forgotten that Scarecrow was still behind him as he dodged a clumsy punch by him when he left his position at the gazebo.

Robin easily blocked another punch and kicked him in the jaw sending him careening backwards. Then his cape came alive and wrapped itself tight around him. The Wizard came up having retrieved his cane.

"You will regret the day your mother conceived you!"

_Ohhh...where was Shadow!_

It was the strangest laugh she had ever heard a boy his age give, and somehow it echoed among the trees and clearing. Shadow readied herself to join when a man, dressed in a black suit, with a tall black hat, and holding a black cane, came into view.

He had on a wicked, mischievous smile and looked up at her. She lowered herself some, blades coming out.

"Hello," He said.

"Who are you?" She bluntly asked, she didn't care for pleasant greetings.

"I am Shade," Her eyes narrowed a little at the word. "The master of shadows."

"Well I'm _Shadow_. And _no one_ is the master of me." With that she struck one of her blades at him while he pointed his cane at her. Instantly blackness covered her. So dark that she couldn't see anything, she felt the blade whiz back to it's holding place in her bracelet.

"You can not fight me if you can not see me." It sounded, a fist connected with her jaw, but she was absorbing so much energy from the darkness that her head barely tilted back, in fact, she felt no pain whatsoever only a slight pressure.

She couldn't a help a small smile to come. _This was his plan? Surround me I darkness so I couldn't _see_?_ She gave a silent laugh at his naivety.

Breathing deeply she let all the dark enter her. It poured into her skin and the power was so strong she could barely contain it. It had to be let out. Energy sparked form her like electricity and her eyes were a powerful white.

The guy looked stunned. "Fool," She said, her voice sounded deep and different from so much energy. "Don't you know you should be afraid of the dark." She sent him flying far into he woods, screaming.

Looking across the way she saw some old man coming up to Robin who got tangled in his cape. _Hang on Bird._

The cape wouldn't budge. No matter how much he struggled he was wrapped tight in it. The Wizard materialized a knife and was about to press it against his throat when. _Whaooosh!_ A black rocket carried the Wizard into the woods.

The cape slackened and Robin managed to unwrap himself. _Was that...Shadow? _The rocket shot up carrying the terrified and screaming Wizard above the tree tops then hurtled him to the ground. Robin's eyes widened. _She wouldn't really let him fall to his death would she?_ He was readying himself to catch the man when a black cloud covered him.

Robin saw the frightened whites of his eyes before he went sailing up again. "Please! Please! I hate roller coasters! Let me GO!" He cried as he was lifted high towards the clouds.

"Fair enough." He heard Shadow say and she released her hold on the guy who instantly became a victim of gravity again. Twenty feet from the ground the cloud of energy encased him once more drifting down a ways until letting go.

He fell on his chest breathing heavily. Shadow descended, Robin was surprised at how much energy she was putting out. It danced around her at least a foot thick.

Seeing the fog start to dissapear he out his portable gas mask in his pocket. "What are you after Wizard?" Robin demanded and kneeled next to the guy.

Wizard gave out a low moan which turned into a chuckle. "It kills you not to know doesn't it?" He asked with a crooked grin. "Raeppasid worceracS dna em ekam." In a _poof_ of gray smoke he was gone. They turned in time to see the still unconscious Scarecrow disappear in the same way.

"Crap!" Robin stomped the ground in frustration. _Stupid spells and magic!_ Then he cringed. _I'm glad Zatana didn't here me think that..._

"So what now." A voice said. Shadow had glided next to him, the black cloud still surrounding her and her eyes still white as she floated above the ground.

Robin rubbed his chin. _How did they find us here...was it a coincidence because of the election thing or...something else..._ Bruce told him to never believe in coincidences, he was looking at Shadow as he thought all this, making her exceedingly uncomfortable.

"What it is _Sparrow_?" She demanded.

"Let me see your wrist." He said reaching for her hand. She instantly flew back a little. "What, why?"

"Look I just need to check something." He tried again but again she went back and this time up a little.

"Check for what?"

He gave an aggravated sigh before trying another approach. "Do you trust me?" He was looking at her through his dark sunglasses when he asked. She stared apprehensively down at him pondering this.

"Well do you?"

"I'm thinking!"

_How could she not trust after all this? She should know by now that I'm a good guy!_

"A little..." It sounded reluctant and wary but she came back down to the ground and stood in front of him.

"Awesome." He reached for her wrist and felt her tense up as he examined her bracelet thing.

_Nothing. I was sure there would be a...maybe the other one._

He dropped that hand and upon inspection of the other found a tiny metal circle. Anyone would have missed it, but he was trained by Batman.

"Aha!"

"Aha? What aha?" She rubbed her blades as if to rid them of foreign contamination.

"Tracking device." He replied going on the sidewalk to drop it and then smash it to bits.

"_Tracking device?!_" She looked angry.

"Ya," Robin shrugged cause it wasn't a big deal. "They probably put it on you when we were trapped with the Brain, just in case you would escape."

She growled, blades slicing out, and black erupting around her like fire.

Robin took a couple of steps back. "Hey take it easy. It's not that big of a deal."

Her growl became more intense but her energy cloud went out and blades slowly went back in. Robin felt like he avoided a big catastrophe. "So we should probably get going. There's been a lot of chalantness going around and the police will be here any minute."

"There's been a lot of _what_?" Shadow asked walking up to him.

"Chalantness, chalant. You know," Her eyes narrowed. "Or...maybe you don't. It's from the adjective nonchalant, meaning everything is normal so chalant would be everything is going freaky."

She seemed to take a moment to think about this then. "It's like that stupid '_aster' _word. Isn't?"

Robin started walking away down the sidewalk. "Ya, hey wait! It's not stupid!" He glared at her.

"Whatever pt-ah-shka, let's just go."

"What does puh-tash-ka mean?"

She smirked. "Little bird."

Robin ground his teeth at the name, but swallowed his anger. _At least they stopped Wizard and Scarecrow, but what were they up to..._Robin suddenly stopped. "I should change just in case we run into more trouble."

She gave him a quizzical look. "Change?"

"Ya into my super-hero suit."

"You mean that Halloween costume?"

Robin rolled his eyes although she couldn't see it because of his dark sunglasses. "It's not a Halloween costume," He started headed into the woods she was still watching him leave. "Don't look!"

She let out an annoyed sigh but turned around as Robin continued explaining while changing. "It's to protect my secret identity so that way no one will know who I am."

"If you wanted to protect your '_identity_' so bad then why do you only cover your eyes with a mask?"

It didn't take the Boy Wonder long to switch and he came out placing said mask over eyes. "What do you mean?"

Hearing him emerge from the woods she turned around. "I mean _only_ your eyes are covered, not you whole face."

"So?" He questioned as he began to once again precede down the sidewalk.

"So. People still know what your actual face looks like, and theyway you look with your black hair and your...your...how tall you are," Her brow was slightly furrowed as she talked.

_She must be trying to say height._ Robin thought, kind of catching on to her point.

"So couldn't people just take a picture of you and...I don't know, put it in a computer or something to try and see if anything matches up?"

Robin smiled. _It wasn't the first time that question was asked._ "Well you see most if the crime I fight is during night and it's harder to see then...as you probably know." She nodded her head and he continued. "Also it would take a while for everything to configure in the computer and even after it did all that, one would have to try and pinpoint among at least thousands of results to find mwah."

He indicated to himself and Shadow seemed to think it made since. Then she came out with the question, "So where did you keep your 'super-hero-secret-keeping-costume' all this time?"

He looked down at his usual uniform, although it was the only one he had since he fell out of the bioship so it was in terrible condition. "I was trained by Batman." He smiled at his response.

"Is that supposed to explain anything?"

_Crap that's right. She doesn't know who he is._ "It's a trade secret."

Her mouth twitched at the corner but she didn't say anything except for a "Hm."

Actually he had cut a hole in his jacket and has stashed the suit in there, but he wasn't about to admit that.

**{*}**

Hope you liked it! Again, super sorry for the late update, but I hope this makes up for it. I've also noticed that not many people have voted in my poll. Please do! I might put up some more options of you want, but if it's just cause you don't know who the Teen Titans are then you should look them up and if it'd cause you just don't like the Teen Tians then you should get your brain scanned. :P Happy Fall Break!


	13. Chapter 13

**{*}**

:D update! I must warn you before preceeding, there is a part in this story where it gets pretty dark. Like I'm rating this chapter T because of it. Call me paronoid at the end if you read and are all "Oh that wasn't bad at all I've read much worse stuff." Fine, but I just want you guys to be prepared. Also, again, please vote! So now that I've left a really long author's note, enjoy what happens to our favorite heroes!

**{*}**

They started again down the winding trail that was the park's sidewalk. They weren't saying a word to each other but that was to be expected. It wasn't long before out of no where...

_WHAM!_

Vines hurtled themselves at Robin. Shadow instantly turned around blades flashing in the low light when vines tackled her back to. An angered female voice shouted. "You brats have been a thorn in our side long enough!"

Shadow was briefly disoriented, however she could make out Robin giving some clever remark. "And it's just as wonderful to see your pretty face Poison Ivy."

Shadow blasted away at the plants, but paused at the woman before her. She had ruled out that ,since this inter-dimensional travel, few things could shock her, but this was one of them.

The lady was a pale _green_. Sure Kurt was furry and blue, but this woman was green with a darker green outfit and dark green stripes and red hair. _Definitely a mutant. _Shadow thought, although she wasn't the only person there.

There was a man in a brown jacket and wearing a strange helmet that made him look like he had one red eye, it reminded her of Scott.

A man with a white face, green hair, bright red lips twisted in a creepy grin, and wearing a purple and green suit was there, also that brain thing, his freakish gorilla, Wizard and Scarecrow came back along with the man in the black suit, _Shade._

_This might be harder than last time. _Glancing over at Robin she knew he was thinking the same thing. Thinking fast she used her energy to grab him and flew in the air.

_"__Tel reh hgiew ekil deal!" _No sooner had Wizard shouted out the words that Shadow felt very heavy very fast and wound up crashing to the ground.

They recovered quick, Shadow felt her heartbeat race as they advanced on white faced one cackled. "Is that all you brats got?" Than his face became sad. "Then this will be no fun..." Then he burst into a chaotic laughter.

Through her peripheral vision she saw Robin throw a small ball on the ground, instantly smoke surrounded them as more plants erupted from the ground. It stung her eyes and made her cough.

_Can't see!_ She flew above the rising smoke, and flashes of people could be see in it. A red beam of light shot towards her.

She used a shield to block it but a part of it bounced off and onto her foot. She clenched her teeth, "Innnn..." But still lost some of her focus plummeting lower than what she would have liked.

_"__Tel sekans ylf ta reh!"_Before she knew what was happening a horde of snakes were sailing threw the air and coming in her direction. She couldn't help but think. _This is to bizarre. _As she covered herself and decided to go head and take out that annoying Wizard.

Landing she coughed and tried to ignore her eyes as they stung, then noticed Poison Ivy unconscious on the ground. _Kid must of taken care of her._ She sensed someone behind her and turned around just in time to block _Shade_'s stick from crashing into her head.

"I'll teach _you_ why you don't fly _me_, Shade, the master of darkness into the _woods_!" He yelled at her, lashing at her with his cane her again and again.

"And I'll show you what happens when you talk in third person!" Robin smacked into his side, the man fell to the ground cane rolling out of his reach. Shadow went and smashed it in two with her foot.

Then Shadow heard a cackle that sent shivers down her spine. "I don't think we've had the privilege to play with her." It was the white faced man, his face emerged from the smoke, staring directly at Shadow. "Let's see if she's any fun, shall we?" He sent, _cards_, flying at her. Robin disappeared once again so Shadow flew directly up, but then thick vines encased her.

"Let's just get this over with!" Poison Ivy said. There was a little blood on the corner of her mouth. Shadow heard a screech and Robin came back flipping into view fighting the gorilla. Once again she burst from the plants but was hit by the red beam, full force.

Dirt sprayed up from where she connected with the ground. She tried to get up but someone smashed their foot into her back, "Gah!" she let out. "Don't be _afraid_ now..." Came the silky-slimy voice. Gathering energy to help her, she twisted around but he sent some sort of smoke down on her. Only then did she realize it was Scarecrow and what Robin had said. _"Try not to breathe in the gas. It will cause you to hallucinate."_

Shadow felt her heart speed up, sweat formed, and what she saw kept...going in and out getting darker and then lighter. Then Scarecrow became the most terrifying thing in her life. All what she wanted to do was get away from him. She shrieked and shot up, avoiding plants and blasts.

She was confused but couldn't figure out where she was going, she thought she was going up but face planted in the ground all what she could see was. _Her_. She ran smack into a big hairy stomach, then darted into the other directions and saw _Sunshine?_

No not Sunshine. _Robin._ She had to save him too! But it was to much! All to much! Her head throbbed, she was back in Russia, getting chased by a gang. Then she was trying to grab Robin so they could fly out but something bound her and she couldn't move!

A thick necklace was placed on her, _a collar? _She could only watch as again and again the man in the purple suit swiped at Robin with a knife again and again, then he was knocked aside and getting punched.

Punched rained down on his face! Then they captured Sunshine and Chamele. Shadow screamed and tried even harder to get at them, but all she could was watch as they got beat up! Tears streamed down her face, her heart felt as though it could fly out of her chest. _To much! It was all just to much!_

The black out was letting up, whatever (or whoever) had caused seemed to be finished, so the team could find Robin easier. They were about to set out when. _Recognized Red Arrow B06_

"I heard Robin went missing. I'm here to help." Red Arrow said coming in through the zeta tube.

The Team, plus the now healthy Zatana and Rocket, were just about to head over to the bio-ship, which had been retrieved by the Justice League and with the combined skills of M'gann and J'hon, had been healed and ready for combat.

"We welcome your assistance." Aqualad said and Red Arrow came over.

Aqualad started to brief him on their way to the ship. "The Justice League went out to investigate the blackout which as slowly been letting up, needless to say that crime became worse because of it so they are dealing with that also. Robin has been missing for two days now and we have reason to believe that the Shadow has kidnapped him and holding him hostage."

"Or she's just handing him over to whoever brought her here!" Kid Flash interjected, Artemis put a calming hand on his arm.

Aqualad continued. "Or, yes, that she has handed him over to whoever she is working for. So if we fail to find Robin we can at least capture and interrogate her as to where his whereabouts are."

"All right," Red Arrow said. "So where are we heading."

"At a warehouse in Lincoln Nebraska. Batman had managed to get a location at one of the places Robin had been,"

"And you have no idea who this _Shadow_ is?" Red Arrow asked as they went in the ship, Miss Martian added more chairs to accompany them all.

Artemis was the one who answered. "We checked everything, everywhere but there's nothing on her. It's like she appeared out of nowhere."

Rocket said. "Well you guys said that the Light was working on some top secret inter-dimensional junk so...maybe it worked."

"That could be true." Miss Martian seconded.

"But the machine was destroyed in that fire so we wouldn't be able to get anything off of it." Superboy said.

"I don't care _how_ she got here!" Kid Flash said. "I just want her to pay for what she's doing to Robin right now!"

"She will," Artemis said in a low calming voice.

"Trust me," Aqualad reassured him. "She will."

"NEEEYYYEEEETTTT!" Shadow cried trying to bolt up, but was restrained. She looked wildly around. Nothing much was comprehending and she kept speaking gibberish in Russian.

_FOCUS!_ The voice in her mind yelled. She laid back down and took deep breathes. _In...out In...out _Finally she was able to calm down. Memories came bake, but it was only flashes. She decided not to think about it until she dealt with the matter at hand.

She was in a glass ball held in place by yellow glowing bands at her wrists and ankles. It was emitting rays resembling sunlight. _Great, can't use my powers to get of here. _But she did notice her wrist blades were still intact. _Ha, idiots probably couldn't get them off._

She tried looking around. The glass made everything hazy. But she assumed she was in some lab again, glancing to her left she saw..._Oh no._ Robin lay there. Wires attached to him. He was breathing hard and crusted blood could be seen even threw the haze of the glass.

_My fault! It's my fault! _Panic zinged threw her but she bit her tongue trying to keep her thoughts focused. No one still hadn't entered the lab. It was brightly lit, with big metal machines around.

_If I can break these bands than maybe I can bust out of here as well._ For Shadow there was no _if _about getting out of the bands, she hadn't met anything that her blades couldn't cut threw, except Wolverine's claws.

But there were no windows and she had no idea how long she had been unconscious or what time of day or ,night it, was. Not to mention how well guarded this place has to be.

_But I'd rather escape before I find out what they want to do with us._ She wriggled her right wrist a bit and was about to unleash her blade when the door _whooshed_ open. She paused not wanting to get caught.

The guy with the strange helmet and red eye walked up to her. "Ah, you are awake. Perfect. We wouldn't want you to miss out on what we have in store for you."

She glared at him, not saying a word. "Want to keep quiet hm? Not as entertaining as some of the others. Oh well." He walked off. The brain in a jar and his gorilla were working on some controls in a corner. _Others...what does that mean?_

The brain came up to her. "Ah yes the little _doh-mp_, I've been waiting to experiment on you." _Did he just call me dumb?_ "You see the Light was more than pleased that we got you. You can not imagine how this will change things!"

The gorilla huffed a couple of times. "Excuse me but, it seems we are ready to proceed."

He rolled away. Dread was like lead in her stomach. Whatever they were going to do it was not going to be good. And sure enough, it wasn't.

Once the Brain reached the controls he pressed a button, all the light went out save for the glowing of dials and machines, and then he pulled a lever up.

Blue lightening shot around the ball and threw Shadow. She couldn't suppress a scream of agonizing pain. It coursed threw her like fire and she yelled with all her might. Arms straining against her restrictions. She couldn't focus. Couldn't think. Only knew the absolute agony her body was going threw.

Then it stopped, though her body jerked. The light came back on and there was a whirr as a computer processed the data. But Shadow didn't care, she was panting trying to calm herself down. The red-eyed man came up to her again, running a scanner across the globe. "There, that wasn't so bad now was it?" He said with a smile. Shadow let out a string of Russian profanity at him. "Now, now, looks like we might need to teach you some manners." The turning to Brain said. "The results seem good, after the machine revives I think we should run it threw again, see if we get anything else."

"Yes," Brain responded. "But first, a blood sample, Professor Ojo?"

"My pleasure." He walked over to a computer next to the globe and typed something in. A hole appeared in the sphere and a robotic arm with a syringe came over to Shadow. She snarled and tried scooting away but it was no use, she winced as the needle punctured her sensitive skin and entered her vein. She watched in anger and dismay as blood filled up the container. Then it retreated, a drop of the red liquid evidence that it had been there.

Thirty minutes later they did another lightening round. Although Shadow was expecting it, it didn't help with the suffering. But soon it was done and she started trying to formulate a plain on how to get out of here.

**{*}**

Hope you liked it! According to google translate d'ombre means Shadow. Again I apologize for the dark turn but on that part my inspiration sorta shoved me out of the driver's seat and jacked my car, but I'm liking where it's taking me. :) Anyways I'll try to update next week bye!


	14. Chapter 14

When they Team arrived at the warehouse, or where it once was, they were beyond disappointed. There was only a black space where it had obviously blown up.

"You-you don't think he was..." Zatana couldn't finish _Inside_. Miss Martian came up and said. "I don't think that happened Zatana. This is Robin we're talking about, remember?"

"But still..." She whispered. _He's still human, and this Shadow has powers!_

"_But he's smart." _Miss Martian's voice was in her head, she had forgotten about the mind link. _"You know Robin can wriggle his way out of any situation."_

Then Kid Flash gave out a frustrated cry. "We're never going to find him!"

"Kid..." Artemis was standing close to him.

"Kid Flash, if we are to have any hope of finding Robin you must keep a level head." Aqualad said, wanting to keep the anxiety level low on the Team.

Kid didn't say anything but, after a search, they went back to the bioship to tell Batman they didn't find anything.

Shadow's mind was reeling. Going through every possibility. They had _graciously_ turned the lights out when they left so they could sleep. She glanced over at Robin for the hundredth time. He still hadn't stirred. That worried Shadow, a lot.

She had tried calling to him, but if screaming her head off during those lightening tests or whatever hadn't stirred him than she didn't think anything will. She shuddered at the memory. Sure she'd been beaten senseless before, but she never underwent something like that.

Her body screamed for sleep, but she just couldn't close her eyes. She wanted to stay alert in case Robin woke up. But she didn't know if he was, and that scared her the most.

She whispered. "Prostee." _I'm sorry._

Sleep was viscious though, demanding she give in, and she had no choice but to succumb. However when she woke up, more in the half-in-half-out-state, she noticed brain at the controls, the ball flashed, but sleep dragged her down. However extreme pain mixed in with extreme fear and she couldn't fight it.

Yelling for all her worth she lost herself inside some distant animal instinct to _escape! Get out!_ She forgot Robin, the experiment, herself, everything. The only two things she recognized was one: she had to leave immediately and two: she would tear the people apart if they tried and stopped her.

She somehow managed to conjure her energy and proceeded to try and kill the brain, gorilla, and the man. They screamed for backup. But a huge hole in the wall had been blown open and Shadow took her chance.

Racing along the skyline past trees and a waterfall. Nothing entered her mind except to get away. The moon however was leaving, unnoticed by Shadow, who was still very high in the sky. She was zooming over a town when the first rays of sun broke threw, she yelled as the energy was instantly sapped from her and she plummeted down and landed on the roof, her body jerked and cried for to keep moving to keep getting away, but sleep once more, the demon that it was, clawed onto her and she thought no more.

When Shadow woke up to herself throwing everything inside of her out. She couldn't stop, but once it was over she collapsed again stomach still trying to convulse.

When she stirred again the stench of her puke was everywhere. She got some on her clothes and in her hair. Her head throbbed, her stomach felt awful, and she had no clue where she was or what to do. She couldn't even recall how she got there.

_Well first things first, I better get new clothes._ Luckily it was night. She tried flying up but her head exploded with pain, "Aaaaahhhhh!" She fell back down. Bright spots danced before her eyes. _Okay...flying? Bad steps._ So she tried to get on her hands and knees. Once she could do that with no bright circles to accompany her, she went in a squatting position, then stood up.

She shut her eyes and bit her tongue against the vertigo until it passed. Slowly she turned around and noticed some black stairs leading down. _That will do._

Each step was a challenge though and it took fifteen minutes longer than it should have to reach her destination. _Now to try and go down..._ She had to be five floors up. Taking deep breathes she started descending.

She paused after every section of steps. _What happened that made me so weak?_ During one of her breaks she scrunched her eyes and tried to remember something. Bits and pieces images would flash but then fade, only one stood out. Blue lightening in a ball.

She just couldn't remember why that memory was there. She slowly shook her head, then decided to accomplish one task at a time and that was currently getting off of these stairs.

Finally her feet touched asphalt. She felt no better though. _Definitely dehydrated, maybe severe head injury. _She walked out to where there was a street, not many cars went by. She started walking down the side walk and came upon a run down gas station. _This should be easy enough._

She went in, the door jingling her presence. _Deermo, I don't have anything to hide stuff in. Oh well might need to make a run for it._ She didn't know if she could run far in her condition, but the guy behind the counter was large and talking to another man.

So she maneuvered to where the water was, silently snatching a couple of protein bars along the way and glancing at the mirror in the corner. They weren't even watching!The trickier part would be grabbing a water bottle.

Carefully she opened the glass door, glancing at the men in the mirror. They guy behind the stand flitted his eye over her but that was all, he was to absorbed in his conversation to bother watching her. She got one, then decided to be greedy and took two.

She didn't see any other door leading out, but heard the bells ring as the man left leaving only the guy behind the counter to impatiently wait for her to come and check out.

Shadow saw a few things standing on the counter and formulated a plan. She laid her things down and opened a jar to grab some beef jerky, then she feigned a jerk knocking a stand of various gum at the man, then swiftly grabbed her things and darted out. She heard his predictable angry shout at her to stop.

Her head pounded, the world spun, she felt like throwing up, but she tried to clear her mind and raced back to the alley way where she came from and hid behind a dumpster. She heard the man's heavy footsteps as he went passed the alley, they faded but still she waited just in case.

Sure enough she heard him come back and start his way down the alley. _Oh great!Alright...focus._ She brought her energy around her so she blended in with the darkness, pain radiated from not just her head but everywhere, and she had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out. The man paused right beside her, she didn't breathe. Then he grumbled and went off back to his store. Only after ten seconds passed did Shadow let out a _whoosh _of air and let the energy go.

She only meant to doze there for a little while but wound up going to sleep. When she got up again she knew several hours had passed but the stars still shown. She looked down at her shirt, the streak of throw up was still there and ,touching her hair, felt the ends crusted with it.

She let out a sigh and leaned her head against the green metal. Looking down at her food, she didn't even feel hungry but forced herself to at least drink some water. She decided that half a bottle would do for now. _I can just hear Sunshine getting on to me for stealing. _She thought with a smile.

Then Shadow gasped, dropping the bottle. _Sunshine! Rogue! My promise!_ Picking up the now emptier water she stared it and the other things she stole. _What would they say! Why didn't I just borrow money from Robin. ROBIN!_ She stood up, but instantly had to sit down as it all came flooding to her. The mission with the X-men, getting zapped by the beam, fighting the Freaky Five, saving Robin, riding the subways, fighting the villains, and-_and the blue lightening!_

"_Robin_..." She let out a moan. _Robin, still in the clutches of those-those pome-shannyy nee-gah-dyay! _But she was still so weak! _Get better. You'll be of no help to him if you can't even out run a fat store manager!_

She calmed herself and thought out a plan, she felt exhaustion heavy behind her eyes and knew she would need lots of rest..._but first...a change of clothes._

She still had no appetite and wanted to do nothing but sleep, but focused on centering the energy around her. Her head hurt like crazy, but she attempted to shove the pain aside as a dome of the black stuff formed underneath her.

Breathing deeply she sat down, it wavered but after a minute she got it sturdy enough to where it could support her weight. _Now, let's try flying._ This was one of the first ways Shadow had learned to fly. Concentrating on the dome instead of a cloud around her was easier but less sufficient in battle.

She had kept her eyes closed so as to better concentrate on what she was needing to do, but in order to find clothes she had to open them. Tears brimmed from the pain and she thought she was going to lose her dome, which would have ended in her falling twenty-five feet, but after fifteen minutes she felt ready enough to try moving.

She was on the look out for those red square donation boxes. She had discovered them when coming to America, people just dumped sacks of old and unwanted clothing. The locks were easy to break and then all what you had to do was grab a sack then flee the scene. Usually there was something worthwhile in those bags, and Shadow was hoping that there would be a red box like that near here.

_Found one._ She let out a slow breath of satisfaction and preceded the agonizing decent to the box. When she landed she had to lean up against it to catch her breath. _Remember this: never get struck by lightening again!_ She felt _so_ sick and weak. _But this is for Robin._

With that though in mind she turned and brought out her blades. _Schlink!_ The sound of the lock being cut off filled the still night. She rummaged threw until she found a kind of small bag. She looked at it and tried to judge if she could carry it in the air when.

"Hey! Hey you!" A man and woman with three black sacks were heading her direction, noticing what she had done they started jogging. _DEERMO! _Shadow took off in the opposite direction and heard them start to pursue.

Sweat poured down her, her head was an explosion of stars, she could hardly see where she was going. Running down the sidewalk crossing the street, making a left, crossing the street again, she tried to zig-zag away from them.

Finally she stopped, breathing hard then hurled up the water she had recently drank. Passing a hand over her mouth she thought. _Great, lost them. Now to find my alley way._ But she just couldn't move, so instead she slunk down, hand clutching the bag, and passed out. When she woke again, there was barely a hint of the sunrise.

_Need to get up if I'm wanting to anywhere._ Groaning she used the wall to get to her feet. Shadow clenched her teeth in frustration at her condition. _Least I still have the clothes and those people didn't find me._

By the time she made it to her alley way, the sun was even more present, her headache hadn't let up, a constant blurry black rim circled her vision, and a drowsiness was ever present. Although, her stomach was feeling better.

Knowing she needed sleep she decided to eat a little and change when she woke up. She ate a beef jerky and protein bar and had what was left of the opened water bottle. Then dragged a flat, wavy piece of metal to use as a bed and piled other junk around her to be somewhat hidden from view. Then she opened up the sack to drag out some of it's contents.

She didn't pay attention to what she was using, just tried to make her 'bed' have some comfort value using the clothes. She was asleep before she even realized she was laying down.

The Team had searched all night and into the next day. Still nothing. They were beyond agitated and headed to the the brink of despair. The black out had completely ended at six o'clock, but they couldn't track Robin's GPS unit in his computer glove.

Canary had insisted that the Team take a break, but they wouldn't rest until they found a lead. They were flying in the bioship, not knowing what else to do. It was still shaky even though Miss Martian and Martian Manhunter had fixed it.

8:45, Batman"s face appeared on the screen. "There's a video of a girl fitting the Shadow's description, it was taken at a gas station in Chicago." The video played, the Team tensed as the saw, undoubtedly, the Shadow enter.

They watched as she grabbed a few items, then got some beef jerky and purposefully knocked over a gum stand causing a distraction as she ran. Even though the crime was small, it fueled the Team's anger at her that much more.

Once the video ended Aqualad spoke. "So you wan us to check this lead?"

"Yes," Batman answered. "See if you can find her there." His eyes narrowed. "And _bring her in_." The screen flashed out. Miss Martian set the coordinates for the gas station in Chicago. The Team was hungry for revenge.

Soon they were in Chicago, around the area the Shadow was supposed to be in. The sun had set as Miss Martian landed the bioship and linked their minds. Aqualad went in and questioned the store manager. "Ya, that punk of a kid got away, ran to the left of here. I searched an alley way but didn't see her. When you catch her make sure she get's what she deserves!"

"Believe me," Aqualad said. "She will." _Okay everyone, you heard him! _Aqualad started to give the order. _Miss Martian and Rocket I want you two to get an aerial view and head in the direction the store manager pointed out. Superboy and Artemis follow them on the ground. Me and Red arrow will search the other side, while Kid Flash and Zatana check the opposite direction in case she's moved. _

_If you find her let us know before you engage!_

**{*}**

Hope you liked it! Next chapter will have a fight scene between Shadow and the Team, I'm not good at fight scene _at all_ so please bear with me if it's not any good! Leave a reveiw beautiful people!


	15. Chapter 15

When Shadow opened her groggy eyes it looked like the sun was setting. _Or...is it rising? How long have I been asleep? I need to help Robin!_

A groan came from her mouth as she stretched. Her stomach growled it's anger at not having enough to eat yesterday, so she had the other protein bar and a beef jerky, while also drinking the last bit of water.

She rummaged threw the clothes she took last night, shoving down the brief guilt over breaking her promise so she could focus on Robin, and wore a dark green T-shirt with very dark blue easy-to-move-in jeans with some 'new' black and white tennis shoes.

She wiped the sleep from her eyes, standing up as she tried to recall where they had kept her and Robin. But everything was so blurry! However she took small satisfaction in seeing that the sun was indeed setting. _At least it will make it easier for me to find him. I just hope I'm not to late..._

She waited for the sun to hide under the horizon before trying to fly. She made it to midair with no problem. _This is better. Neeyet headache. Neeyet nausea. Neeyet feeling sick-_

Suddenly her body was taken with a spasm. She lost focused and crashed into the boxes and metal with her body jerking and twisting in various directions. It ceased though, as swift as it had happened. _Great. Now I need to watch out for spasm attacks._ She started to fly again. She didn't know what they were doing to Robin, and she didn't want to delay trying to find him any longer.

She was gliding above the buildings, trying to think of where to start, when she saw a blur of colorful wind rush down below. _That could be one of Robin's teammates!_ Only when she tried following it, she couldn't find him. _Deermo! They could help me._

Back at square one, she drifted over the city before coming to land on top of a building. _Now what am I going to do. _Shadow felt a presence behind her and turned as someone said. "You there. Do you know what happened to Robin?" It was a girl with black hair and blue eyes like Shadow, only she wore some sort of tuxedo-like suit, it reminded Shadow of a magician's costume.

At first Shadow was eager, but then thought. _What if those people placed another tracker on me again and sent her to try and trick me into following her, making me think that she knows Robin and then before I know it, I'm ambushed and back to that...place._ It all made since to Shadow so she slit out her blades and took on a battle stance, once the girl saw what she was doing she took her own stance and held out her hands.

"What you know of Robin?" She inquired again slowly.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Shadow said before throwing one blade and then the second at her. _Shink! Shink!_ They flew at her. "Riadim ni ezeerf!" Her blades hovered, wobbling there for a moment to the surprise of both girls before rushing back to Shadow and inserting themselves back in place.

Shadow tried to blast her with her energy but she shouted out another incantation. "Reapasid!" Shadow's energy split in two and it became suddenly uncontrollable, Shadow lost her focus and the two large beams made several patterns in the sky before crashing into the roof, making the old, rotten, ceiling crumble down.

Admits the downpour of rubble Shadow managed to cover herself and heard the girl shout. "Em dleihs! Em etativel!" Blasting away her confinements Shadow was ready to face off again, the girl was there, flying? And with a white shield around her. Rocketing down from the roof was another girl, she wore dark blue and gray outfit and had a pink aurora around her.

Knowing if she tried to blast them the magician would just deflect it again, Shadow made the junk about them whirl around, protecting herself but effectively making the others try and head out for the roof. Shadow directed the mass of blackness, wood, metal, and brick to follow them, lifting herself as well, and making it shower from the sky.

She floated above the hole and was hit by a blast of blue light from the pink aurora girl. She landed on the ground. Raised her arms and was about to sling her blades at them when a red and green arrow landed by her, covering her in a fowl smelling pink substance that hardened. It only came up to her shoulders so she could still breathe and used the combined strength of her knives and energy to break free of it. Then threw sharp dagger-like blasts in the direction of the arrows, the two archers leaped out of the way. Shadow floated up. She thought she recognized one of those arrows but before she could think about it again she was trapped in a blew bubble.

She blasted it, swiped at hit, and hit it, but nothing would open it. It was the pink-aurora girl who had encased her inside it. Shadow meditated for a second, closing her eyes. She focused energy outside of the bubble making it snake up the girl's foot. Shadow heard them give a cry as the girl was being covered by it, blocking off her oxygen flow.

The bubble disappeared, but a jet stream of water blasted her. She crashed back down soaked. She lost focus and the girl was set free. Another arrow landed in the water, a short bout of electricity zapping threw it and her. She cried out, and saw big black blotches, but still tried to stand. A blur around her and the giant puddle went around, around, around and around. Getting faster and faster until she was spinning around in the water which was moving up.

But she still hadn't healed from whatever experiment those people did to her, as she was spilled onto the pavement something snapped and she lost control once again. She felt like something inside of her took over, and she could only watch from inside.

She stopped the speedster in his tracks, and roughly pulled both legs out of their sockets. Arrows shot at her, blue blasts flew towards her, somehow bricks formed together and tried to pin her down, yet the monster in her feasted on this. A girl with green skin and a boy with black hair had joined in the fight.

Shadow, again, covered the pink aurora girl in a black blanket, including the girl in the magicians suit as well. The magician somehow broke free and while she tried to help her comrade, Shadow flung her blades at the archers, making them go so fast that the archers could not react in time. Somehow she got control enough to make sure only the ends of the arrows were cut of, and not their necks which is what the beast had aimed at.

Shadow tried focusing, as her body fought the black haired boy and another guy with blue swords and black tattoos. Then she felt another presence in her mind.

_The green girl?! The girl from mars!_ The sane part of Shadow then recognized the people she had taken down, but she had lost to much control and the beast was on a rampage.

The mars girl seemed shocked to find Shadow trying to regain control while she tried to make sure she didn't kill anyone.

"Help me!" She screamed at the green girl, _she's telepathic, she can help._ The people on the outside backed off for some reason, evading her instead of fighting, so Shadow could focus her strength on regaining control.

The girl helped, a lot. Together the monster tamed, and Shadow took over.

Everything snapped back together, like when you suddenly spring up from a sleep. Shadow was on the ground, sweat dripping off her face, and another spasm took over.

They stood over her, not knowing what to do, but Shadow didn't pay attention. She tried to regulate her breath and focus the cool night air to come inside. her and calm her. Whatever that experiment had done it had amplified her power, she hoped that it wasn't forever.

"Are you okay?" The girl from mars asked. Shadow looked at her, if it wasn't for her help, who knew how long it would have taken Shadow to regain control, and who knew how much damage she could have done.

"Da." She gasped, and accepted her hand to help her stand shakily to her feet.

"That's, the _enemy_!" The fast boy said, somebody had helped him so he could walk but you could tell it hurt. "Who cares if she's okay!"

Shadow mentally kicked herself for being so stupid and quick to assume, those two girls must be part of Robin's team! _Idiot!_

"She's _not_ the enemy." The girl defended.

"Miss Martian, I hope you have an explanation." _The water man!_ He was the one who spoke, and this girl must be Miss Martian.

"I do." She looked at Shadow, before looking back at the group. "When I was in her mind I saw her and Robin." Shadow shuddered to think of anyone being in her mind, but Miss Martian continued. "She didn't kidnap him, or mean to blow a hole in the bioship. She and him were on their way to Mount Justice when...something intervened, but that's as far as I got."

They eyed Shadow, and she nodded, she didn't like it that Miss Martian easily got that much information but at least they weren't trying to attack her.

"Do you know where Robin is?" The water-man asked.

"Yes," Shadow replied, clearing her throat before saying. "I was on my way to search for him when I was..." She looked at the magician and pink aurora girl. "Interrupted."

"It ain't _our_ fault!" The aurora girl protested. "_She_ attacked us first!"

"Rocket." The water man said, but before he could continue Shadow interrupted. "I did, I did not know who you were, and" She took a breath before saying, _need to get on their good side,_ "I am sorry."

She got two different responses at the same time. The magician said. "That's okay," while _Rocket_ said "You nearly _killed_ me, twice!"

"This isn't bringing us any closer to Robin," The green archer spoke up.

"Right, can you lead us to him?" The water man said.

Shadow nodded. "Because of the...circumstances, I could not get to Robin. But when I left, I did not get to far, so I beleive he is close."

"Great!" Miss Martian said clasping her hands together, then introduced everyone. "That's Aqualad," The water man nodded, "Kid Flash," The speedster only glared at her, "Rocket," The girl huffed, "Zatana," She tried to give a friendly smile, "Artemis," the green archer only looked at her, "Red Arrow," his eyes narrowed, "And Superboy." the guy's arms were crossed. _Why would anyone call themselves Super_boy_, why not Super_man_?_

"We should get to the bioship and go." _Aqualad_ said. Miss Martian held out her hand, and to Shadow's amazement a _plane_ came into view. Pink and dark blue, Miss martian turned it around and it opened in the back, with a ramp leading up.

They started to file in. "It's going to be a little crowded, but I think we can fit." Miss Martian said, she was the second to last one in line to go in, with Shadow being the last and everyone watching her form the inside.

Shadow was hesitant to get on, but eager to find Robin, so when Miss Martian walked up the ramp she started to follow. She got five paces when it suddenly jerked up, causing her to land back on the ground, and she watched it close against her.

Shadow was furious. _Is this their idea of a joke!?_ She "Hey you _konvulʹsii! _Ot-kreet!"

The 'door' slid down and Miss Martian was there. "Oh my gosh I'm _so_ sorry! I don't know what happened."

Shadow glared at them as she lifted herself up onto the ship. "Is everything alright Miss Martian?" Aqualad asked.

"I don't know," She started replying, sitting down in the back seat and placing her hands on two orbs. "I guess-"

The ship violently went right then left, before stopping.

"Is that _you_ doing this?" Kid Flash said glaring at Shadow, who had not been strapped in and flung one way then another. _What was happening?_ She could feel a deep dislike at her, but figured it was the others feeling that.

"Neeyet." She replied.

"Nuh...what now?" He said, giving her a quizzical look.

"_Miss Martian_?" Aqualad said again. "Is the ship functional?"

"I don't know...let me talk to it." She said, and the orbs glowed white. _Talk to it? What kind of insane, messed up people am I dealing with here!?_

"Ooohhh..." Miss Martian drug out the word. "I see."

"See what?" Kid Flash asked.

"She just doesn't like you." Miss Martian turned to Shadow, who was picking her self up off the floor.

"Hold up," Rocket said. "Are you telling me this ship as feelings?"

"Of course she does," Miss Martian said, as if it should be obvious. "And she really doesn't like the Shadow."

"Wait," Shadow said looking at Miss Martian. "I'm _Shadow, _no 'the' in front of it, and you are trying to tell me that this," she pointed at the floor for emphasis. "Airplane can _feel_ emotion, _and_ it doesn't like me? Why?"

"Dude, it's called a _bioship_, or ship for short," Kid Flash started to answer for her. "And you kind of blew a gigantic hole in it, so I can see where it can be a little upset."

"Come on girl," Miss Martian said. "Make the-er, uh, make Shadow a seat."

Shadow waited, _I forgot RObin said that I kind of damaged this plane-or bioship._ The mars girl was right about it being crowded in here. This looked so strange! Finally a seat started forming right under Shadow and she had to move out of the way. She sat down in it and seat belts came out and strapped her in, making an uncomfortablely tight X, on her. Shadow knew things would _not_ go well when they took off.

"Alright," Aqualad said turning to face the front again. "Let's get Robin."

**{*}**

Translations:

_konvulʹsii=_Jerks (but now I see this mean more of convoltions so I apologize for getting that wrong.)

Ot-Kreet= open

So I sincerely apologize for not updating and if the font looks weird. I thank you so much for keeping me in line! I've been bogged down with school and, honestly, feeling a little unmotivated, so thank you for getting me back into gear! I hope you thought the fight scene was good, and I hope you like the bioship not likeing Shadow! I figured that if I was a bioship and someone damaged me almost beyond repair, I wouldn't want them on me again. And I'm sorry of some of the characters are out of place, especially Rocket and Zatana, I'm not as used to them... Also what Shadow said when she got knocked off was _konvulʹsii_-jerks and Ot-kreet open up. I haven't been giving translations only becuase I'm forgetful, my apologize...

Next chapter they get Robin! Let me know your thoughts on this chapter, till next time...peace out!


	16. Chapter 16

**{*}**

Just wanted to get a quick apology out of the way first. No, they don't rescue Robin in this one. Curse my name all you want, and I wouldn't blame you, caue I hate braking promises. Longer explanation at the bottom.

**{*}**

A few villains, who had helped to apprehend the Shadow and Robin, now stood before blue screens with fuzzy white shapes. The distorted figures being the rest of the members of the Light.

"So she escaped?" Vandal Savage growled out, annoyance and rage displayed with each word. They all knew dealing with cross-dimensions was dangerous, but they had only meant the incident as a practice test of sorts. They had not expected for their creation to actually work. The machines had not been equipped to handle the surge of power yet, causing the whole thing to blow up and a massive flickering blackout on this hemisphere of the world. Not to mention that the sidekicks popped in, preventing them of regaining what information the fire hadn't destroyed.

The Light were trying to remain as far away from the public and League's investigations, while also trying to hunt down their unexpected victim. They were delighted to finally find her in Gotham, but dismayed when she was with Robin, Batman's number one bird. Any other sidekick wouldn't have been as much of a complication, but this was the Batman's first and, consequently, most experienced sidekick. If he went missing they would have the fury of the world's number one detective hunting their hides! This is why they tried separating them and have Shade capture the girl, but they had underestimated her powers. They had watched as Shade's shadows seemed to feed into her strength before she easily overtook him and Wizard, who was supposed to only distract the boy.

So they had to send in everyone available, which infuriated the Light, and now the Shadow had escaped! She'd left the building as a massive wreckage, inflicted damage to many of the Light's members in ways they didn't think possible, and had left behind the boy!

This led to their unscheduled emergency meeting to try and figure out how they were going to fix this mess.

"How did they even escape?"

This time it wasn't Vandal Savage, it was Klarion. The Witch Boy was in a mix of rage and glee. He literally lived for chaos and this was a nice cup of it. However, when the chaos messed with his plans to cause people panic, this thrust him into a state of child-like rage. He couldn't decide whether to cackle or snarl, as a result, so he went for a mix of both. The resulting tone he gave was a grotesque sound much to the annoyance of the others.  
Queen Bee tried silencing him first. "Klarion, you must pull yourself together and help us think of a way out of this mess."

"I can't help it," Klarion snorted. "I live for this type of chaos."

Then his voice changed into that of anger. "But messing up my fun isn't okay!"

"Calm down Klarion." Savage ordered, having been able to set his anger aside, temporarily, and think clearly. "What is the state of Professor Ojo, Brain, Mallah, Ivy, and Scarecrow?"

He inwardly seethed at how many members were on the injured list, but attempted to not show his rage, lest he give his fellow villains a means to point out a weakness. Wizard was in attendance, a bruise visible on the left side of his face. Shade was also there, seemingly unharmed. Finally, Joker (who had a nasty slice going across his cheek) was sitting across from Savage, his maniac smile plastered to his face and trying to keep from bursting with pleased laughter as he spoke.

"Well which question do you want us to answer first? How she escaped?" He asked raising his left hand palm up. "Or are our fellow comrade's condition?"  
He raised the other hand, then fell backwards in his seat letting loose his infamous laugh.

The others just glared, as Wizard cleared his throat, making his report. "We managed to get a decent amount of blood from the specimen. One before she woke up and the first test was performed."

Queen Bee interrupted. "And what exactly were these 'tests' that you performed? I have not seen anything like them before."  
"I believe that would be courtesy of me," Ra's al Ghul said, sounding a bit pleased with himself. "If you remember, Queen Bee, that both I and Mr. Savage have been communicating with others who share this vast galaxy of ours, as was demonstrated when we gained access to much of that valuable tech."

They all remembered Bialya, and how they lost the Sphere..., but also the Apokolips people. Ra's continued. "We manged to obtain some of their advanced science works and this is what those tests were, Wizard, you may continue."

Nodding and hating that he had to respond to a command like a dog, Wizard complied. "The tests gave us everything we needed; from her exact physical measurements to her cellular structure and even...her brain patterns."

This initiated some approving "hm's", and he continued. "After the test, Professor Ojo took another blood sample while Brain studied the results. It was when he looked at the second sample that we discovered it."

"Discovered what?" Savage asked intrigued, and eager to hear more, yet his skepticism remained.

"A gene, or some strange DNA strand, is in her. Apparently the test had somehow...enlarged it, so it showed up on our monitors."  
Wizard nodded to Shade who started typing on a nearby computer. Data was sent to each of the members of the Light, and all was quiet as they read.

"Enlightening, isn't it?" Joker said and threw himself into another fit of chaotic laughter.  
Everyone ignored him, Savage spoke before his sceen flicker off. "If you will excuse me for a moment."

"What was that?" Shade asked, voicing what everyone else thought.

"Maybe he didn't like my joke?" Joker responded, in a somewhat whiny voice.

"Doesn't matter," Queen Bee started, wanting to discuss this new gene they had found. "This is very interesting, but I'm still not sure how it can help us and our cause."

Lex Luther, who had been silent for the whole meeting, finally had something to say. "Unless..."  
He trailed off for a minute, knowing that what he was about to propose may sound preposterous. "What if this is the link that all super-powered humans share?"

Everyone froze at the thought. Black Manta was the first to voice his opinion on the matter. "It seems too far-fetched, how could one gene in one girl, help us at all?"

Before anyone could answer Savage's screen came back on.  
"Ladies and gentlemen," He immediately announced. "As you know we have been communicating with the other beings in out galaxy, and I believe now is a good opportunity to inform you about them."

"You've been keeping secrets from us?" Klarion hissed.

In order to stop a huge argument from breaking out, Savage continued. "Yes and no. See these aliens are looking for some...test subjects that have a certain quality in their genetic traits."

"But how can we be sure that it is in other super-powered people?" Black Manta asked.

"Not just in other supers," Savage smiled, though they couldn't tell the possibilities this lead up to. "But in other plain people as well, you see they know a little of what this is, but they need more. Our Earth hosts over six billion people which fits their needs nicely."

"So they want to search for more of this gene?" Queen Bee inquired, wanting to clarify.

"Exactly," Savage said. "I've sent them a sample of this and will hopefully get a reply back soon."

He couldn't help but grin, sure it would take some time to get everything going, possibly five to seven years, but he knew that this other alien group, that this Reach, could change the world forever.

**{*}**

So, did you like seeing what the Light was thinking? On another note, I am really sorry about them not getting to Robin, that chapter is still under construction, but luckily I think my inspiration is finally kicking in gear! I didn't like going all Christmas break without posting anything, so think of this as a late New Years present.

Lastly, I can not take all credit for this, over Christmas I got myself in gear and hunted down for a beta reader. So I am proud to introduce _Aurora Shadowglen_and _BeingWhoIWishIWas._

Next chapter, I'm working on how they will save Robin. Merry Christmas :)


	17. Chapter 17 part 1

**{*}**

I'm back! Yes I made this into two parts posted at the same time, and yes I took down that author's note it was annoying me and also it's against the rules to post one as a chapter. Sorry! This picks up directly after the first one so you may want to review before continueing. Anyway, enjoy!

**{*}**

Miss Martian nodded and tilted her head to the side, thinking. "Shadow, are you telekinetic?"

Shadow replied plainly, "I don't think so."

"Shadow," Red Arrow said before Miss Martian could continue her polite inquiries and turning to face her. "Do you remember where you and Robin were held? Can you give details about who was there?"

"Da, I think so," Shadow said, rubbing her head. "Can this thing go up?"

Soon her stomach twisted as she felt the plane moved a digital up. She could also feel the nagging feeling of the group not liking her, like it was in the back of her mind, but she shoved the annoying impression aside and concentrated.

"Go fprah-vah," Shadow directed

"Go what?" Miss Martian asked, sounding very confused.

"Er-right, go that way." She pointed her finger in the direction and felt the bioship swivel around and fly off at an easy speed, but Shadow still felt woozy, and that annoying feeling was now turning to a dull ache. Whatever, she just needed to focus on saving Robin.

Shadow waited a second before answering Red Arrow's question, trying to recall the memories and how she should word them.

"Before we were...captured," She started and they all leaned in to listen. "Robin and I were in..."

She tried to think of the city name. "Goatherm park?"

That earned many confused glances, Artemis offered, "You mean Gotham Park?"

"Da, and we were...how you say 'ambushed', by..."

Shadow realized at how ridiculous the characters she was about to describe would sound, _but hopefully they will know who I'm talking about._

"There was a man with green hair, a white face, and wearing a purple suit. His...roof seemed to have...slid off."

_I'm not sure I said that right..._

It seemed like the last part threw them, and Aqualad growled, "Joker..."

"Neeyet, I am being serious." Shadow responded hastily. _Great, they don't believe me!_ She continued before they could say anything. "There was a woman. She seemed to control plants."

"Poison Ivy?" Zatana offered.

_Okay...maybe they did believe me._

"I guess," Shadow said. The aching feeling was getting more intense now. _What is their deal_? She thought and continued. "There was...I think Robin said his name is, Scarecrow?"

Aqualad and Red Arrow nodded for her to go on.

"And another guy named, Wizard-"

"Wizard?" Zatana blurted, sounding alarmed.

"Da, Wizard, and, a man with a cane…who could control darkness,"

"Shade?" Kid Flash said.

Shadow automatically, but discreetly, twitched at that name, before saying. "Da, and a man with a helmet making him look like he had one red eye."

"Professor Ojo," Superboy growled.

"And lastly," Her body shuddered at the memories, and her head hurt from feeling the group's dislike for her. "A… a brain in the jar and he had this big _gorilla_ with him."

"And, Brain is there too?" Kid Flash said, now eating a...protein bar? During a mission?

"Da, a brain in a jar is there, with a giant gorilla." Shadow confirmed while she used one hand to rub her temples. Her head was hurting even more, waves of distrust hit her and her stomach was woozy even though they weren't going fast. _What if I get sick again?_ The thought worried her.

"I hate monkeys..." Superboy said quietly.

"What was the facility like where they kept you?" Aqualad asked.

_"Ya, what was it like?" _The snarky mark made her pause, was that said out loud? She couldn't be sure so shook her head and looked out the window trying to clear her mind and think of the place.

"It was…" She had begun, but the images wouldn't come. They were passing trees, rivers, lakes, a waterfall, more trees-...waterfall?

"Wait, go back," Shadow said, "I think I recognize that."

Miss Martian backed up the bioship.

_"Now what?" _Again, Shadow wasn't sure if that was said out loud or not, people need to keep their mouths shut. She breathed deeply to keep her cool, it was probably Kid Flash who kept making the remarks.

"I passed that waterfall, it was to my ost-ahee-ol, er-a...left, when I passed it." Shadow said to the Team, some brought up floating blue-glowing computers and typed stuff in. It reminded her painfully of Robin.

"Roger that." Miss Martian said, veering the ship so that they passed the waterfall in that direction.

The dislike for her pounded on, it was really irking Shadow, but she elected to ignore it, for now.

"I...I only remember a room." She closed her eyes in thought. "Everything else is hazy."

_"I bet it is." _That comment had to be audible, and it was more than she would take from a Team who couldn't locate their lost teammate even after three days.

"_Look_," Shadow said trying to turn around to face them, but the seat was stiff. "I know what you think of me and that you do not like me, and I do not like you either, but I am trying to help you _save Robin_," She glared at them all and was met with bewildered faces, yet she continued. "So would you keep your _no-de-yeah-dviddly_ [TWC1] comments to yourselves?"

Questionable looks were exchanged among them and Artemis was the first to say, "Shadow, nobody said anything."

She felt herself pale. Was she going crazy? She could have sworn that they had said something, or at least…she was _sure_ that they had said something. She couldn't think of what to say as she tried to puzzle this out in her head, until Miss Martian said hesitantly, "Um, Shadow? I think you're hearing the ship."

Shadow slowly turned to her and repeated in disbelief. "I am _hearing_ the ship?"

"Uh ya, that's what she just said," Kid Flash spoke, in defensively to Shadow and taking another bite from his snack.

"If you are telekinetic, why not?" Miss Martian said as if she were coming on to something. "It would explain how you kicked me out of your mind so easy, why I couldn't find you mentally, and-"

"Miss Martian," Aqualad interrupted, "Your hypothesis is all well and good but need I remind you that one of our own is missing?"

His tone was hard, but his gaze a little softer. Shame and worry replaced Miss Martian's pondering expression, and Aqualad continued, addressing Shadow, "Allow us to get back on track, whether or not you are able to communicate with the bioship is irrelevant. Please, tell us more details you can remember about the building."

So Shadow described to them what she could, leaving out the part where she went through their lightning tests, only saying that she saw a bunch of blue lightning in a ball. She did tell them they drew blood. For some reason, it was really painful to think about that much less talk about it.

"I think we are close," She informed, recognizing the landmarks more and more.

"The bioship isn't picking up any wavelengths or frequencies," Miss Martian stated.

_Oh no… what if they moved since I've been there!_ Shadow was hoping that they hadn't, who knows where they could have gone.

"Miss Martian, can you do a mental sweep to check?" Aqualad asked.

"Sure thing." Was the response, she stopped the ship as her eyes turned green.

"I think someone has tried to put a mental barrier up," she reported. "But I'm not sure."

Shadow relaxed at that. "Well if someone put up a barrier, then that must mean that there are people there."

"Not necessarily," Aqualad said. "They may have set a trap, but it is still worth checking out. Miss Martian, land the bioship, and everyone,

prepare for stealth mode."

At that Kid Flash, Artemis, Red Arrow and Aqualad touched the symbols on their uniforms and their outfits turned black. Miss Martian's clothes morphed into her stealthier ones and Zatana said the incantation of "Tiftuo htlaets."

Shadow was a little impressed at the apparent high level technology.

"Shadow," Aqualad said, turning to address her as the ship gently landed amongst some trees. "We shall need your assistance during this mission, as you have been here before your knowledge is important, so we would like for you to accompany us."

_While that may be true, you also want to keep an eye on me to make sure that I don't get away. _Her eyes had narrowed in suspicion but she replied. "Da, I get it."

She unbuckled herself, with a little difficulty, and stood up.

"Wait," Aqualad held up his hand, and she slacked her position, arms crossed. "When we do missions, we do not use com links in order to avoid interceptions of our conversations."

Shadow didn't like where he was going with this.

"So with your permission, will you allow Miss Martian to add you to our physic link?" Aqualad concluded.

Her face must have shown her dislike because Zatana spoke up.

"Please," Her blue eyes were wide and she had a pleading look. "We need to save Robin."

_Crap!_ "Fine," Shadow answered threw gritted teeth and glaring eyes. _For Robin._

Instantly, she felt an invasion of her brain, her headache returned, and Miss Martian's voice echoed, _"Everyone online?"_Shadow involuntarily shuddered, apparently causing everyone else to do the same.

_"Dude, that was weird!" _KF said. They had all felt Shadow's shudder go through them.

_"Everyone, we need to focus on the mission. Shadow, are you ready?" _Aqualad asked.

Shadow replied. _**Let's just get this over with**__."Davayte pokonchim s etim."_

Everyone shouted at the same time.

_"What?""Can you repeat that?""I'm sorry?""We don't speak Russian!""You're going to have to talk English from now on.""Speak English!"_

Aqualad angrily quieted them. _"Everyone calm down! Shadow, unfortunately you will need to communicate in English for us to understand _

_you."_

Shadow had experienced many things in her life, hating a bunch of them, but this, so far, out did them all. All of these people were in her head, crowding around there, she felt like she was going insane! And now, above everything else, she was going to have to translate _her own __thoughts_ into English!

Shadow, not really meaning to do what she was doing, started thinking in her head. _"_Vy , dolzhno bytʹ, shutishʹ! Snachala vy vtorgnutʹsya moy mozg i teperʹya dolzhen Translat mii sobstvennyye mysli dlya vas glupyye lyudi ![TWC 2] _" _

Kid Flash soon responded with. _"Eng-lish!"_

Aqualad could be heard saying. _"Shadow, if this will be too difficult for you-"_

_"Neeyet."_ She had to concentrate to think of the correct translations. _"Fine. I will. Be okay."_

Grinding her teeth in aggravation she went to stand up once again, only to fall to the ground again as another spasm attack took place.

_"Oh my gosh!""Is she having a seizure?""What should we do?"_

The thoughts raced around in her head, which felt like it was coming apart, her blood prickled, everything was fuzzy, and she had to clench her teeth tight to keep from crying out. Soon though, everything slowly came back into focus as the pain ebbed away and she was aware of Miss Martian directly over her and the others leaning in behind her. _"Shadow, can you hear me?"_

Shadow snapped at Miss Martian, mentally. _"_YA slyshu vas khorosho! Prochʹ![TWC 3] "

_"Sounds like she's okay to me," _Kid Flash retorted, though worry still showed in his eyes.

Shadow took a minute to stand, ignoring hands offering to help her up. Still dizzy, she managed to get out, _"Give me. Min-you-ta." _

_"Perhaps you should get some fresh air?" _Miss Martian offered hopefully, not sure what to do in this situation.

Aqualad had his eyes narrowed. _"Good idea."_

She was escorted out by everyone except Aqualad and Red Arrow, thankful that she did not throw-up.

Aqualad had remained on the ship with Red Arrow so they could contact Batman. He soon answered, to Aqualad it sounded like he had just woken up.

"Any news?" He asked gruffly, his hand reached outside the screen and when it returned a cup of coffee was in it.

"We have the Shadow, and she has led us to where she claims they took her and Robin," Aqualad informed.

Red Arrow cut in. "But we're afraid it might be a trap, Miss Martian hasn't had the best of luck reading her mind, and the Shadow seems to have epilepsy."

Batman's eyes narrowed in thought. Yes, it could easily be a trap, but it was the only clue to Robin that they had. But the epilepsy threw him off.

"I'm on my way, but it will take a while, so go ahead and follow her in, but be on high alert and keep a close watch on her. The seizures could be someone giving her orders telepathically so there might be a psychic, or someone could be trying to control her and she's attempting to fight it." He wasn't quite sure, anything was possible.

"Could Psimon have escaped and be the source?" Aqualad asked dubiously.

"No, Psimon is still locked in St. Mungo's. Could be another one though," Batman said. "Make sure Miss Martian does a thorough scan of the area."

Aqualad and Red Arrow nodded before signing off.

_"I don't trust her." _Was KF's first thought as he exited the bioship with the others, arms crossed.

_"None of us do." _Artemis reassured him, holding tightly to her bow.

_"I don't know guys...maybe we should give her a chance?" _Miss Martian said, always wanting to see the best in people.

They all glanced at where Shadow stood looking out into the woods. Her arms were crossed, but she seemed alert and okay after her seizure.

Miss Martian had linked her telepathically, but kept the Team's conversation private.

Rocket snorted_. "It's gonna take a lot to get my trust."_ She was still harboring a few feelings of resentment at being suffocated.

_"I keep sensing this...dark magic, almost, around her...and what was with that seizure?" _Zatana was eyeing their guest with uncertainty.

Superboy was curious. _"Dark magic, like Klarion?"_

_"I don't know," _Zatana said frustrated._"Maybe she's a magician. Like me."_

Miss Martian was a little surprised. _"I thought I sensed she was telepathic."_

Aqualad interrupted their conversation, _"It does not matter, she is our only link to Robin, and therefore we need to trust her...to an extent. __Miss Martian, I want you to keep close to her when we infiltrate the building. Watch out in case she has a seizure or tries to attack you. Batman is on his way, but until then we have permission to go in and save Robin."_

_"Not that we wouldn't go in even if we didn't get permission." _Kid Flash said smartly_._

Aqualad ignored him, but silently agreed. _"Now we need to plan, Miss Martian, if you would include Shadow back into the group?"_

* * *

Shadow had the feeling that they were doing the psychic communication again without her...but she couldn't be sure. It was like a fly buzzing in her head, but it was so small that she could hardly tell if it was there or not. _It doesn't matter_. They could gossip all they want about her. Her focus was getting Robin out of there.

She kept thinking at the horrible things they were probably doing to him, and she couldn't help but feel that it was her fault. If he would of just left her alone! But she couldn't blame him, it seemed all heroes, even from different dimensions, had the instinct to help everyone any way they could.

It reminded her of the X-men...No! She couldn't lose focus! She had to keep her mind on what was happening now and what was about to happen. Besides, she needed to try to be prepared in hopes of preventing another seizure or going out of control again.That thought terrified her. Sure sometimes her powers were hard to manage and not easy to get used to. Professor Xavier had said that was part of being a new-found mutant. But she had never gone completely berserk like that though. It was like being thrown onto the backseat of your mind while some strange thing grabbed the controls and went on a murderous rampage. It reminded her of...she shook her head. She didn't want to think of who it reminded her of.

She was interrupted by Aqualad's voice in her head. _"Shadow, are you well enough to proceed with the mission?"_

She cringed and replied. _"Da."_ She sure hated this telepathic stuff.

_"Are you sure?" _He persisted.

_"Ya-eveerin-shto! Da!"_ [TWC 4] She said irritably.

_"Alright,"_ Aqualad tried to remain calm and addressed everyone and they all faced him expectantly.

_"Now, here's what we are going to do, I want Superboy, Miss Martian, Red Arrow, Kid Flash and Shadow to scope the left side of the area __while me, Artemis, Rocket, and Zatana will take the right. Report back what you see to me and we will make plans from there."_

Everyone nodded in acknowledgment, before splitting into their designated groups and heading for the direction they were supposed to go.

Red Arrow took the lead, followed by Kid Flash and Superboy. Shadow and Miss Martian elected to fly a few feet off the ground, rather than risk creeping between the trees and trying to not to step on any sticks as the others had to avoid.

They went like that for a little while, everyone silent and eyes roaming for a sign that they were coming up on something.

Miss Martian paused and asked for the other to do the same. _"I'm definitely sensing some minds close by. About a hundred yards from here, __more to the right."_

_"Alright,_" Red Arrow stated._"Aqualad, did you get that?"_

_"Yes, we shall proceed in the same direction."_

_"Okay," _

He turned to face his teammates and Shadow_. "Let's move."_

They went more carefully in the direction Miss Martian had pointed out, and soon found themselves looking down in a small crater, but nothing was there.

_"It must be camouflaged,"_ Miss Martian suggested.

_"I got it,"_ Superboy interjected as he stepped forward.

Shadow looked, waiting for something to happen, and was a little surprised when Superboy responded, _"I see a building in the shape of an __E, it looks like they're trying to repair it. There are walls being rebuilt and canvases stretched over parts of it, but I can make out eleven doors, three guards per door, and more patrolling outside and inside."_

He paused for a moment, head slowly scanning the area._"I think I see…four bodies, all lying down. One of them looks like Mallah, and it __seems that Brain is hooked up to some machines." _

That was odd, but before anyone could have their input Superboy's mood changed.

Because of the psychic link, Shadow could feel his alarm quickly form into anger and uncertainty. She could also sense everyone else's apprehension; it was like an entanglement of emotions. She couldn't see why anyone would ever want to do this; risking the comm links would have been better.

_"What is it Superboy?" _Aqualad asked, wondering what had made his teammate pause.

_"I think-I think I see Robin." _

A mix of excitement, anger, and a fresh wave of determination came across the odd band of teenagers.

Shadow spoke up, asking, _"_Kak vy mozhete skazatʹ[TWC 5] ?"

_"Don't forget to speak English, Shadow," _Kid Flash reminded her._"And I can tell, too."_

Glancing over, Shadow noticed he had lowered his red goggles.

_"Uh. How…can you…tell?"_

Answering for Superboy, Miss Martian responded. "_Superboy has X-ray and heat vision. So he can see through the buildings and tell if __anyone is there."_

Kid Flash added, _"And my goggles view various light spectra. So I can see some of the rooms and people." _

Shadow nodded, and Superboy continued.

_"I also see six devices sticking up from the ground surrounding the building. I think that is what's causing it to be invisible."_

_"I could probably short circuit those, but undoubtedly an alarm will be raised,"_ Aqualad mused but hesitated.

Red Arrow, impatient as ever, growled out, _"I say go ahead and do it. Six of you took on the Injustice League by yourselves, so with all nine __of us it should be a cinch." _

Aqualad nodded. _"Agreed, I will see if I can take out the devices. Kid Flash, Miss Martian, and Shadow, I want you three to go after Robin __and focus on getting him to the bioship. The rest of us will cover you, got it?"_

They all agreed, and waited for Aqualad to shut down the cloaking devices.

**{*}**

Did anyone catch that Harry Potter reference? Sorry it took me so long to update, but I've beeen busy. Lame excuse I know, but I think (hope) that I'll get a chance to write more often and post sooner.

Translations:

[TWC 1] irksome

[TWC 2] You have got to be kidding me! First you invade my brain and now I have to translate my own thoughts for you stupid people!

[TWC 3] I can hear you fine! Get away!

[TWC 4] I'm sure! Yes!

[TWC 5] How can you be sure?


	18. Chapter 17 part 2

**{*}**

Alright here's part 2!

**{*}**

It didn't take him long, they watched the building Superboy described as it flickered for a few moments before finally coming into view, accompanied by a dimly flashing red light and guards running all over, placing themselves at apparently already assigned positions.

_"Quick, everyone move!"_ Aqualad encouraged them and they all raced off. Kid Flash took the lead, trailed by Miss Martian and Shadow.

A yellow and red blur took out the nearest guards, and more were thrown amongst some trees by Miss Martian, and Shadow took three more guard's guns and used it to knock them unconscious before following the blue hem of the Martian's cape threw a ripped canvas and into the building. She heard sounds from the battle behind her as everyone else fought off the rest of them. She could almost _feel_ them fighting because of their linked minds.

They were flying down a corridor, KF skidding to a halt momentarily before speaking to the two girls via mind link. _"I see three people in front of the room Robin is in. Be prepared."_

Miss Martian nodded, bracing herself, and silenced her teammates' outside battle from their minds so they could focus better. Shadow drew her blades out with a quick _slink_ noise. Readjusting his goggles, Kid Flash once again sped off.

They made a quick left, twisted to the right, and turned a final left to come face to face with Wizard, who grinned and tapped his cane on the floor, Joker, who gave a manic-looking smile, and Shade, who fingered his black stick and sneered with an air of boredom

"Hopelessly trying to save your little friend? You baby heroes are _so_ predictable."

In a rage, KF snarled, "Predict this $& hole!", and went at him. Shade backed away and released the black mist form his staff, laughing.

The girls were about to help him, Shadow knowing she could easily defeat him, but Wizard started an incantation, quickly Miss Martian levitated him up,but he managed to croak before she could stop him. _"Epac reh nrub erif!"_

Her blue cape erupted in flames making Miss Martian screech and drop her captive. Distracted by the spontaneous flames, Shadow felt a great sting as something sliced across her cheek, and she turned to glare at the Joker.

She remembered him clearly and felt rage bubble up inside of her, suppressed only with a faint snarl as her fists clenched.

He had seven playing cards placed between his fingers, having just thrown one of them. With a mad cackle he sprinted off, leaping midway to turn and throw another blade at her which she managed to duck, but still received a tear in her shirt.

She heard him down the hallway, in a sing-song voice, _"If you want to save the Feather Brain….better come after me…try and open up the door ….Wizard's 'cantation will make you see… laughing is such sweet glee!"_

Shadow growled, Miss Martian had ripped off her cloak and was once again battling Wizard while Kid Flash was fighting Shade. _Should she risk opening the door? It could be a bluff…Or he could be telling the truth and then they'd have to worry about helping you once whatever the door is supposed to do to those who open in it, happens!_

She tore after the crazed man.

He had already gotten a good head start, but she listened hard for his guffawing laughter and followed it as best she could. The building kept shaking now and then and shouts and yells could be heard from outside. _I hope they're doing okay._

She briefly thought before she paused in a junction, the way going right was dimly lit like the rest of the building but the way left was pitch black, and the laughter had gone silent.

She floated for a minute, wondering which way to go, when she heard something shift to her left and a tiny giggle. She dove to the dark corroder, an ominous feeling flying inside her.

She couldn't see a thing, but could almost feel another presence in with her. For a moment she drifted there, waiting for something to happen, then heard a giant slam, a burst of laughter, and light flooded the room.

"AAAHH!" Shadow yelled, immediately losing her energy and banging onto the hard floor, hands clutching her pounding head.

That ridiculous laugh filled the space and she opened her watery eyes a little. She was in a long rectangular corridor with bright yellow lights lining all along the walls. She slowly tried to stand up, but it hurt.

"You see girly! You see!" the Joker started his gloating. "We have discovered your secret and I must say it took us long enough." His tone then turned serious and he paced the short length between two of the sides, hand behind his back, as Shadow panted with a hand placed against the wall for support, her ominous feeling had bloomed into a mixture of panic and fear, which she fought down. _This is not good..._

"When we had you we only got the chance to test you two times, before you…cracked." He popped his neck accordingly. "But I must say you did leave an impression after you decided to go."

He then turned to her on his heel, staring at her with a maniacal look in his eyes. "Again I must say…"

His mouth opened in a grin, tongue slowly licking his blood-red lips as he brought his white hands together in front of him. "The demonstration you gave us…gave _me_… Why with power like that, I could rule Gotham-with-an-iron-fist!"

He had taken three quick steps in her direction, a hand raised in front of him, clenched tightly.

"But how to take the power from you…" The paceing had been resumed, and by now Shadow could stand, but didn't look at him so she could hear what he had to say.

"You see, I've never really thought about trying to _take_ any superpower before. Batsy's detective skills are a power on their own, but…"

He paused for a moment, with Shadow wondering who 'Batsy' was, before he resumed his monologue. "…with this new technology at my disposal, the possibilities are endless!"

He jumped up and down in glee, but stopped as soon as he had started, and faced Shadow's back once again. "Although I still need to take you with me, see the other Light members don't know my secret plan for you, and I'd rather keep it that way. Have everyone think that you've _run off_."

She could hear him taking slow, deliberate steps, to her. "And while they search for you, alongside their favorite little jester, I'll also be silently looking for a way to extract what you have and place it inside myself!"

He was about twenty feet from her now. "And now, since I have rendered you harmless, thanks to this little improvision that I made."

He gestured to the corridor. "There is no way for you to escape."

He advanced a little farther but paused when she chuckled.

"Funny?" He inquired with a tilt of his head.

Finally, Shadow spoke. "If you _think_, that just because you have taken away my 'power' that you have 'rendered me _harmless'_…"

She allowed another short laugh before slowly turning to face him. "Then I say, _'do-your-worst'_."

He seemed rather impressed by this and nodded his head. "Well, okay then."

With speed Shadow hadn't anticipated, he sent a kick to her side.

With an "Oof," she skidded to the other side of the room and with a _slink_ brought her blades out, which had accidently retreated when the lights had turned on.

With a flick of her wrist she sent one flying in his direction, he contorted his body in unnatural ways to avoid it and the unusual knife spun in an arc before replacing itself in it's hold.

"Impressive," He shouted. "Let me try!"

He brought the cards between his fingers once more and flung them in her direction. Not have anything to hide behind, and unable to conjure up her powers, she took to running the length of the building, receiving a few nicks to her heels and calves. Then turned to try and send a blade at him again, only to discover that he was already in front of her, swinging down a _sword_.

Where he had hidden that, she had no idea, but her blade sliced through the top of it and the second one that he brought on her. Again and again she slung at him, but he kept producing knives and objects out of seemingly nowhere!

"Maybe this will teach you!" He yelled slamming something around her neck when it was briefly exposed and the thing clicked in place.

Electricity shot through her system and her blades automatically went inside their bracelets as she fell down once more.

"Try to fight me now!" He cried triumphantly and aimed another kick at her, but she caught it and glared up at him as he struggled to get out of her grip.

Flinging him away, she stood up and quickly used a tip of her blade to cut off the thing around her neck before he could press a button on a tiny trigger he had in his hands, which she figured was what caused the electricity to go through her. For some reason it had hurt really badly when she had used even that small tip of her blade, as if the electricity was still charged in them.

With a snarl of anger he threw the trigger at her, followed by a punch, which she blocked. There was a moment where they were frozen, staring at one another as if sizing each other up, then a flurry of kicks, punches, dodges, and retaliations followed, sending both of them around and around the room like some strange choreography.

Finally they sprung apart, both panting and Shadow feeling exceedingly weak. She noticed the look of shock and anger on his face.

"Why are you surprised?" She jeered at him. "I only have my powers at _night_. I am strongest during the _night_, so of _course_ I would learn how to defend myself _in the day_!"

"Yes you're right," He mused, and then his face contorted with rage. "But it wasn't supposed to go this way!"

Suddenly, he composed himself. "No matter, on to plan D then?"

He pulled out three bright yellow balls, and hurled them at Shadow. There was nowhere for her to go, and three big flashes of light erupted before her eyes. She yelled out and fell to the floor once more, all energy gone, but at the same time there was a second explosion at the side of the wall and a wave of smoke burst through.

She heard Joker lovingly "Batsy! You came to the party!" The Joker ran to the source of the explosion, she thought she heard a fight but couldn't be sure. _Who was Batsy?_ Her mind was tired and she couldn't think staright.

The smoke burned her eyes when she tried looking up, and at first she thought she was hallucinating, for an imposing figure of a bat walking upright was coming towards her.

A spark of fear gave her strength to stand as she realized this must be 'Batsy' and she sent a round house kick to his side. She caught him unawares and took the time he needed to recover to lay as many punches on the thing as she could.

He seemed about to say something while blocking her attacks, but just at that moment she hit him square in the jaw, causing him to stagger back a bit. She automatically brought out her blades, remembering too late how they had hurt, but was pleasantly surprised when they only gave a small twinge comparable to the strength of a static shock.

Keeping them intact she went after the man, she wasn't about to give him a chance to beat her up, especially when she felt as weak as she did.

Shadow soon discovered, though, that he had apparently been holding back…way back, and found herself on the offensive desperately trying to get away. A vicious kick to her abdomen had her kneeling in front of him, before she was grabbed her shoulder and slammed against the wall.

She coughed and her stomach hurt after having been crumbled and straightened again so soon.

"What do you think you're doing?" She heard him growl, then someone shouted from behind.

"Batman, wait! That's Shadow!" It was Aqualad.

"I know." Batman spat at him, then faced Shadow again. "She was about to explain as to why she attacked me!"

He let her go and she dropped down to her feet. _But wasn't this the Joker's accomplice? What was going on!_

In her panic and confusion she reverted back to Rusian, " YA dumal, vy rabotayete sDzhokerom." [TWC1] She muttered, and then froze when he replied back. In Russian.

" Menya zovut Betmena, i net. YA ne rabotayu s Dzhokerom." [TWC2]

He turned his head to Aqualad and barked, "How's Robin?"

Aqualad replied swiftly. "He is being taken to the bioship by Superboy, Kid Flash, and Red Arrow. He appears to be in good condition."

"And Miss Martian?" He brusquely inquired as well.

"Zatana took out Wizard just in time and Miss Martian is recovering easily."

"Good," The Batman said. "I've contacted red Tornado and Black Canary. They will be here in seven minutes to take care of the Joker, Wizard, Shade, and everyone else. I want you and the Team to take the bioship back to the Cave. I'll contact you as soon as I am able."

"What about Shadow?" He asked giving her an inquiry glance.

"She'll be coming with me." He said gruffly, then grabbed her by the shoulder once more and led her off, she glanced down and saw the Joker unconscious and cuffed in cylinder-like cuffs, that completely enveloped his hands and feet, however his mouth still held his demented smile.

Aqualad followed after them, dragging Joker with him, but soon departed down a separate corridor while she and the Batman strode on ahead.

She felt nervous, now realizing she had attacked what was apparently the Team's leader, and now she was left alone with him.

He brought her to a wide square room, with TV's hanging from the wall in a semi-circle fashion in the middle and a wall devoted to a wide assortment of computers, whis is where he led her.

The Batman stalked over to them and pointed to a space beside the monitors and wall saying. "pod-see-yest." [TWC3]

Shadow obeyed the command silently and sat in the corner, feeling a little indignant, while he sat in a black chair placed in front of a large keyboard.

She wasn't going to be the first one to speak it seemed. Although he had threatened to make her 'explain herself',but it didn't look like he wanted to talk anytime soon. So they sat in silence as he inserted something into the computer and raced his hands across the desktop.

She let out a silent sigh and rested her head against the wall. She hurt all over, as she finally felt all the stings, burns and bruises that seemed to be everywhere over her body.

At least Robin is okay and I'm not dead.

Other than that, she couldn't think of anything else that was going her way right then.

* * *

**{*}**

Well I hope you liked it! I'm already working on the next chapter and will hopefully get that posted sooner. Please send me a review so I can know how bad or good I did, have a wonderful day!

Translations:

[TWC 1] I thought you were working with the Joker

[TWC 2] My name is Batman, and no. I do not work with the Joker.

[TWC3] Sit down

**{*}**


	19. Chapter 18

*****Alright, here's chapter 8! Hope you still enjoy the story and on a good note my school is wrapping up in a few weeks so I'm wanting to get another chapter out by the end of the end of this month!*****

Batman was typing away on the keyboard, concentrating on the screen in front of him, while Shadow fought to stay awake. To help her with this, she would have liked to move around, but the guy had said to sit and she was far too exhausted to put up a fight.

She ached all over, she felt cuts and gentle bleeding where the Joker had got her during their vicious battle, her head hurt, and - although she tried to use the night air to replenish herself - she needed the natural restoration of a good night's sleep. Not to mention, she could tell that the sun was coming up since it was getting harder to gather energy.

She stirred when a woman came in, she was blonde headed and wore black boots, gray leggings, a shirt that exposed her shoulders, but was covered with a short blue jacket, all of this was topped with a black choke collar.

"We're here and are loading the last of the scum onto…" Her voice faltered when she spotted Shadow sitting in the corner. Shadow glared up at her.

"Is this her?" The woman turned to Batman.

"Yes," He replied curtly. She crossed her arms and apparently Batman took this as a sign that he needed to explain further.

"I found her fighting the Joker, Aqualad said that they didn't have many problems with her and she obeyed orders, he had asked Miss Martian to tail her just in case, but they got separated when trying to free Robin." He never stopped what he was doing on the computer as he recited this all and Shadow listened carefully since she didn't know what happened to everyone after they separated.

"From what I gather Shadow went after the Joker while Miss Martian and Kid Flash were preoccupied with Wizard and Shade. Zatana arrived to help and together they brought Robin out. I arrived about this time, and went to look for the Shadow myself. I found her in a room alone with the Joker and after dealing with him brought her here."

"So far she hasn't made any attempt to escape, and I've tried to find out information from this computer but..." He trailed off there and Shadow saw him lean in more over the keyboard. The woman seemed to find this a little perplexing as she asked. "Is everything okay?"

He didn't answer, but Shadow noticed that ,the part of his face that was exposed, was in alarm and his hands swept over the buttons forming a blur. She saw frustration build up and the woman demanded to know what's going on, then the machine started smoking.

Shadow half arose, swaying slightly as vertigo took her, and then Batman shouted. "GET DOWN!"

In a swift movement he grabbed the woman and Shadow then hurled them to the ground, Shadow felt the air leave her lungs as her sore body slammed painfully with the cement and the man's black cape obscured her vision. A small explosion rocked them forward and sent computer debris flying in all directions. Shadow tried focusing her energy to help cover them but didn't think she managed to do much.

Batman stood up, seemingly unfazed by the explosion and only irked that it had happened. The woman groaned as she straightened herself.

Shadow was having a bit more difficulty and felt the rough grip of gloved hands grab her and pull her up the rest of the way. She hated needing the help and didn't say anything, partly because she was never the politest and partly because she was feeling ill again.

"What was _that_?" The woman demanded, pushing hair out of her face.

Batman didn't give an answer, instead he walked across the ground as if looking for something, then cursed while he stooped to pick up a small black object. It was smoking in one area but nevertheless he inserted into one of his many pouches on his belt.

"The computer had some alien tech in it, which was apparently incorporated with a failsafe that just went off. I wasn't able to break into most of it," he explained with a deep-set scowl on his face.

"Oh, great…" The blonde sounded shocked and frustrated. "Well, what about-"

She turned to look at Shadow and when she saw how battered and sick she looked, asked instead. "Are you okay?"

Batman turned and saw too.

Shadow didn't answer, but swayed where she stood and then proceeded to fall, only to be caught by the woman and then proceeded to vomit all over her shoes.

She heard the woman give only a grunt of disgust, but didn't care; she was on the verge of fainting. The room was turning upside down and her vision went like static before her.

The person whose shoes she had just defiled swung Shadow's shoulder over hers and Batman came on the other side and braced her before all three exited the building.

Shadow tried walking, to not rely on them. Her head hurt, body ached, and her blood started prickling again. As if the lightning had never really left her, as if it was just lingering there.

She could hardly keep focus, images and sounds swayed in and out of her mind. She remembered other people hurriedly coming up to them asking questions, then walking over ground, then being lifted into a seat, a sensation of flying at fast speeds, her head lolled back and then she couldn't remember any more.

After Shadow had gone after the Joker, Kid Flash and Miss Martian were left to deal with Shade and Wizard. For Kid Flash the fight seemed more dangerous than before because if they lost this one, they might lose Robin again, and he was not about to let his best friend be another science experiment for these wackos.

Shade's shadows had tried to engulf him, but Kid Flash turned around and ran up the wall to launch himself at the man.

He made contact and both of them slammed into the wall, Shade managed to recover though and tried to hit Kid Flash in the chin with his staff, but the young speedster dodged him and sent two swift jabs to his face and five in his abdomen.

The master of darkness landed on his knees hard, clutching his stomach as his cane rolled a foot or two away.

"This is for Robin," Kid Flash's voice carried a darker tone than his more joyful hyper one, and he lifted a foot and crashed it into Shade's face, his head reeled back and smacked against the wall before passing out.

Two shots hit the yellow clad hero in the shoulder imbedding themselves in the padding, he whirled around to see two guards coming up the hall way and more right behind them. He also heard Miss Martian give a shout behind him. He felt the flames right as he turned and saw the alien surrounded by them and that they were increasing in length.

Kid Flash didn't make three steps to help her before two nets entangled him.

He let out a yell of aggravation and tried working furiously to get out. He was very close to the fire and could feel it scorching the left side of his body. To make matters worse the guards were getting closer.

"Ezeerf erif!" Kid Flash couldn't see the person, but he recognized the voice and the frozen flames next to him confirmed his answer.

"Your timing could have been better!" He yelled out, arms still stuck firmly to his sides, his head and half of his body still felt too hot for comfort.

Miss Martian rose up and, with a powerful psychic blast, knocked both Wizard and the guards unconscious. Nevertheless, she looked pale.

"Mih dnibnu sepor!" Zatana said again.

Kid Flash's confines immediately came off of him and he stood up.

"Well maybe next time I'll-" Zatana froze mid-sentence and Miss Martian gasped.

"What?" Kid Flash asked incredulously and looked behind him to see if anyone was coming.

Zatana smirked, placed a hand on her hips, arched an amused eyebrow, and said casually, "Your hair's on fire."

"Huh," Dubious he lifted a hand to the left side of his hair and felt live sparks. "Gah!"

Quickly as he could, they were put out.

"Let's get this door open hot head," Zatana smiled and stood in front of it.

"That's the door Robin is behind, right?" Artemis had come up, her quiver half –empty and another arrow already in her bow. "And why is Kid Flash a hot head?"

"Do you really have to ask?" Zatana smirked.

Artemis glanced at her boyfriend who gave her a look that said I-dare-you-to-respond. "You're right, no reason needed." She anwered with a sly smile.

Miss Martian couldn't suppress a giggle. Zatana said, "Nepo rood!"

But nothing happened. She looked confused then tried; her arms spread wide, "Rood eht evael smrahc!"

There was a whooshing sound and she explained, "Wizard must have placed protective charms over this, but it should open now."

The excitement of finally rescuing their friend was contagious, they were all eager for Zatana to get that door open.

For a second time she shouted, "Nepo rood!"

This time, the door swung open.

Robin lay on a bed by the wall. His uniform was still on, torn up and bloodied. Machines beeped nearby and an IV was in his arm.

Kid Flash was by his side in a second, rapidly removing what few bandages there were and the IV. Zatana came beside him closely followed by Artemis. Miss Martian was about to step in when she paused.

"Something wrong?" The Artemis asked.

"I…" Miss Martian looked behind her, then back at the group. "Where's Shadow with the Joker?"

"With the Joker?" Artemis asked and Zatana narrowed her eyes in thought.

"When we were fighting," Miss Martian explained to Artemis. "the Joker lured her away, I better go look for her."

The telepath's voice and features showed signs of regret at having to leave Robin, but she was consoled when Artemis gave her a nod and told her. "We've got him, go on."

She smiled her thanks and then left, flying out of sight.

"That's the last of it," Kid Flash reported. Robin hadn't stirred one bit and Kid Flash was worried, but he wasn't about to show it, although Artemis knew.

Gingerly, he started to lift his best friend.

"Do you want me to take him?" Zatana said, worried that if Kid Flash went too fast it could hurt Robin and thinking that levitating him would be better.

"No, we need to get to the ship and I can hear the battle still going on outside," He held the Boy Wonder close. "You can give us a shield and help fight, and if things start to go bad I can get him out of there faster."

He then turned to Artemis, "Can you scout ahead?"

"On it."

She stepped out of the door, checked both left and right, and then started making her way out.

Kid Flash took a deep breath before walking out. Zatana was behind him and gave the incantation of, "Dliehs evitcetorp."

Walking forward, she came out in front of the blue orb that now shimmered before them.

"We have Robin," Kid Flash reported to the Team.

"How is he?" Aqualad asked and Kid Flash felt him grunt and retaliate to some attack.

"Alive, but unconscious. He was hooked up to a bunch of machines and an IV. It's hard to know what his injuries are due to the old uniform."

"Aqualad," Miss Martian's voice floated in their heads. "I've lost Shadow and am unable to find Joker."

Everyone could hear the disappointment and self-frustration.

"How come?" Aqualad asked, remaining calm although he was wondering how Batman would take the news. Probably better since they got Robin back, but still…

"I don't know, we got separated in battle, when Shadow went after him," Kid Flash could sense the panic that she tried to hide, and backed her up.

"It's true, Wizard attacked her with fire and I was busy with Shade. The Joker lured Shadow off somewhere-"

"And I have no idea where!" Miss Martian sounded again interrupting Kid Flash which was something she normally doesn't do and it only showed how much she was distressed. "I've done mind sweeps and searched the building but they're just gone!"

By now Kid Flash and Zatana were out in the open, Artemis was ahead and busy firing arrows as some of the guards came after them.

"Don't bother going soft on them girl", Rocket said as they saw her race by them and send some of them up to the sky. "They're just robots. D'ya need some help with that shield Z?"

"Yes, please…" Zatana was focusing a lot on the shield, her hands were up and her face looked strained, and some of the machines tried to shoot through it which didn't help.

Rocket flew above them and soon a purple was added to the blue hue and their orb expanded a little.

Miss Martian spoke again, although her angst voice was replaced with shock. "Oh…my…"

"What is it?" Superboy finally piped up, chucking seven guards out of his way as others tried to overtake him.

"It's Poison Ivy, Brain and Mallah…and Profesor Ojo along with Scarecrow?" She said.

"Yeah, what about them?" Rocket asked, sending two guards flying into three more.

"They're all hooked up to these machines…like they've been injured." Miss Martian told the Team.

Aqualad responded, "We will have to deal with them later, right now recovering Shadow is your top priority…"

He stopped and Kid Flash saw him look up. Soon a strong rushing sound was heard and Kid Flash saw the Bat-jet race into view.

"All right!" Rocket exclaimed at the sight.

Batman extended his cape and flew down where the three of them were protecting Robin; his jet stayed hovering over some trees. A magnetic force must have been over it because when some of the goons tried to shoot at it the bullets slowed down so much that they fell harmlessly away.

"How is he?" The Dark Knight demanded as Zatana and Rocket opened a space for him to walk through.

"Alive," Kid Flash told him. "But unconscious. I couldn't determine if he had any injuries."

"Where's Shadow?" Batman asked when he saw Miss Martian come out of the building.

"We, er-" Kid Flash faltered. "Lost her."

He could tell he was not pleased with this news, but he said evenly. "Get Robin on board the bioship and head back towards the cave, I'm going to see if I can find Shadow."

He walked out of the shield and turned to face Miss Martian. "You say she went after Joker, do you think you can locate him?" He asked.

"I've been trying, but we can go look again." She said and let the way into the building.

By now most of the guards had been taken down and they were close to the bioship. Rocket and Zatana let the shield fall as the ship opened up upon recognizing them. Artemis stood guard outside, and once Kid Flash walked in she backed in after him.

When they came in, the ship made a blue and pink bed for Robin while Zatana and Rocket went in the back to get the needed supplies.

Kid Flash gently laid him down and a pillow formed under his head. "I hope you're okay, buddy."

He looked down at his friend's pale skin, it made the bruises seem more pronounced and the red around the cuts brighter.

Artemis undid Robin's cape and started taking off his tunic so they could examine him better. Meanwhile, Aqualad and Superboy went to make sure that Miss Martian and Batman wouldn't need their help.

They were in the building when an explosion went off.

They were strong enough to resist the vibration, but a black mist overtook them.

"Miss Martian, are you okay?" Superboy asked.

"I'm fine, but Shade woke up." Another explosion took place.

"Where is Batman?" Aqualad asked, feeling his way through the inky blackness with Superboy leading him.

"He told me to go after Shade, but he's found Shadow. I think I'm close to finding you guys."

Sure enough, Superboy grunted and Aqualad heard, "Hey, Superboy."

"Where is Shade?" Aqualad couldn't see anything and this unnerved him.

"He's close," Miss Martian said, feeling to make sure she knew where he was then attempted to disperse the cloud.

"I can't move it much," She said.

"I see him," Superboy took off in the direction.

"Superboy, wait!" She called after him then lifted Aqualad and followed.

They heard a few grunts which were easily recognizable to them and the darkness disappeared.

Shade lay at Superboy's feet, once more knocked out.

"Well that is taken care of," Aqualad said, but then asked. "And Batman, where is he?"

"That way," Miss Martian pointed in the direction where Aqualad and Superboy were originally headed.

Aqualad nodded and gave them the order of tying Shade up before going to look for Batman for more orders.

… Back on the bioship KF, Rocket, and Zatana were tending to Robin while Artemis piloted the bioship.

"How is he looking?" The young archer asked, she wasn't used to piloting, Miss Martian had given each of them a few lessons, but she still felt uneasy about it.

"He seems to be okay," Zatana answered, she was standing next to the bed with KF, while Rocket was checking to see if anyone was at the Cave. "He was dehydrated and it looks like he hasn't eaten anything in a day or so."

She moved to a chair next to him and sat down. "He has a lot of bruises and cuts but nothing I'm sure he won't be able to shake off."

She looked relieved as she stared at him. His mask was still on, Rocket had made a move to take it off but Kid Flash told her that it was best to keep on, secret identity and everything.

"Well, no one's at the cave." Rocket told everyone. "At least not yet, I contacted Aqualad and he said that Red Tornado and Black Canary will be there soon, and he'll follow shortly after."

"Does he have Shadow?" Kid Flash asked, he remained at Robin's side refusing to move.

"Ya, he does," Rocket responded. "According to Aqualad, she was pretty banged up. Apparently, Joker led her to a room and switched on some lights that drained her power."

The others leaned in curiously as she related to them what she was told.

"Then they had a big fight, that's when Batman came in."

"What about those other villains that Miss Martian saw, Poison Ivy, Professor Ojo, Brain and his gorilla?" Zatana asked.

"Don't know, he didn't say."

When they arrived at the Cave they hooked Robin up in the infirmary room, but, other than the bruises and scrapes, he looked fine.

It was a weight off their shoulders to know that he was okay, but they were anxious to know what happened to the rest of the Team.

They were still in the room with Robin, not wanting to leave and not sure what to do, when the zeta tubes announced that Red Tornado and Black Canary arrived and they went out to greet them. They met in the kitchen and spoke over the counter.

"How is Robin?" Canary asked with worry.

"He's fine," Rocket reassured her. "Just mostly bruises and cuts."

Kid Flash sniffed the air and asked, "What's that smell?"

"It's nothing," Black Canary said before continuing. "Shade, and Wizard are on their way to Belle Rev and Joker is heading for his cell in Arkham Asylum."

_Since that's the only place that will have him._ Black Canary thought to herself.

"What about the villains Miss Martian saw in that room?" Kid Flash asked, as he pulled three bags of chips from the cabinet and ripped one of them open.

"They'll be under supervision for the time being." Black Canary told them, which made all of them pause. Why were they going to be under 'supervision' and not Wizard, Joker, Shade, and especially Joker?

"Why?" Artemis was the one who voiced their thoughts, sitting on the counter next to Kid Flash who was emptying the first bag into his mouth.

"I don' think now is the time to brief you on that Batman-" Canary was interrupted by Kid Flash.

"So you're still going to treat us like kids and not tell us why?" He glared at her from where he stood.

"I am not treating you like kids," She was trying to maintain her temper. "I don't have much time right now and I just came to check on you guys-"

"Like kids…" Kid Flash turned his head away from her, sat on the counter, and opened the second bag.

The woman's eyes stared at him, controlling herself not to outright yell at him and satisfying herself with the thought that she can put him back in his place during their next training session.

"Look, I know you're still upset about Robin," She started again. "But he's fine. I need to go on League business and Red Tornado is going to stay with you, okay?"

Her tone made it sound more like a command than a question, but the teens nodded and said variations of 'okay' and 'fine'.

"Good." She had turned to leave when Kid Flash sniffed the air again and said, "I think that smell is getting worse."

"Ya, it smells rancid," Zatana commented.

Since Artemis was on a higher elevation than Rocket and Zatana and more observant than Kid Flash, she was the only one to ask, "Black Canary, what's that on your shoes?"

She didn't face them as she replied, "It's none of your concern."

Rocket had moved to get a better view and told her, "It looked like…puke…."

"Gross!" Zatana said with a face of disgust, it quickly fell when she said, "Black Canary, you didn't throw up did you? Are you alright?"

The woman finally faced them and said a little defensively, "I'm fine, it wasn't me who threw up."

"Then who..." Artemis thought out loud looking to Kid Flash, who gave a knowing smile in Black Canary's direction and said, "It was Shadow, wasn't it?!"

"No," Canary was going to defend the girl but she had glanced down to the floor, a giveaway that she was lying and it did not go unnoticed by the Team.

Artemis was first to speak, since Kid Flash burst out laughing. "So it was her!"

She couldn't help but smile; same went for the rest of them although Zatana did ask if she was okay.

"She will be fine, but she's exhausted." The woman took a threatening step towards them demanding that they 'Will not let anyone know about this because if we do need to keep her she will be staying in the Cave'.

She turned away once more and strode out. "Now like I said I have League business and need to go!"

Red Tornado had just stood there, not saying anything, but now he walked in where Kid Flash was still doubled over laughing and the three girls were smiling to themselves.

"Is Robin in the infirmary wing?" He questioned in his monotonic robot dialect.

"Ya, he is." Kid Flash answered him, hopping down and leading the way. "Want to go see him?"

"Yes, please." Red Tornado told him, and followed him with girls trailed along.

Shadow woke up groggily and her head hurting again. She really needed to stop waking up like this. Her blood was also feeling prickly again and she had to blink several times for her vision to come into focus. Then she tried to sit up.

She apparently went too fast the first time, got dizzy, and fell back on the pillow. Back to square one… she thought dismally, recalling her time in alley. Luckily, this time she could remember everything, including that they had saved Robin.

Still laying down and closing her eyes, she used her right hand to rub her face, and then turned to look at her left because she felt something in it.

It was wrapped in gauze and a small tube led to an IV. The needle made her briefly relive her time in the sphere and she did her best to suppress a shudder.

The gauze however made her take into account that she could feel more of the stuff wrapped around her body. She looked down and noticed that her shirt was different.

The rising feelings of anger and confusion flared up in her as she tried to sit up again, and successfully made it this time.

First, she took stock of her surroundings. The room she was in was windowless (so she couldn't tell what time of day it was) and it was mostly white and small. It had the same infirmary and extremely clean feeling that the X-men's hospital wing had.

She noticed a counter with a sink to her left with cabinets above and below it. A door on the far wall on the left side with a small camera in the corner, and on the right another, much smaller, room built in. The door was cracked ajar and Shadow could see a toilet and so assumed it was a bathroom.

To her immediate right, stood a table with her clothes washed and laid out, a couple of chairs were up against the wall.

Second on her list: Assessing the damage. She lifted the covers off and found she now wore a light blue short-sleeved shirt and gray shorts.

She hated wearing shorts, and avoided it if she could. She managed to get use to short sleeves but it was just weird to her to see so much of her skin exposed.

Some gauze was wrapped around her left thigh and shin and, on her other leg, were some smaller bruises and cuts. Feeling underneath her shirt, her torso was mostly covered in more gauze and was very sore. Her arms looked better, but still showed sign of having been in multiple fights in a short space of time.

She was feeling very tired but wasn't in the mood to fall asleep.

_I need to find out where I am. _She eased herself up more and then tried to swing her legs out of bed.

It was hard to do just that, as she felt sluggish and heavy. It was like her body knew what she was attempting to do and outright refused to obey.

The room started to spin and her vision went tunnel while the colors got mixed up. Finally, groaning in defeat, she lay back down on the bed and closed her eyes.

_Maybe I can find out where I am later… _

She knew waiting could be dangerous, but she was just so dang tired.

Then, she heard the door to her room open with a quick whooshing sound as someone walked in. Deermo! Who could it be? She tried sitting up again as fast as she could but it didn't go to well and she only managed to prop herself up on her elbows.

Batman stood there, tall, strong, and all black except for the lower have of his face exposed underneath a half-helmet thing. He seemed to fill the whole room and contrasted largely against the white paint.

The blonde haired woman that Shadow accidently threw up on came in right behind him. Shadow moved, more slowly this time, and finally managed to sit up straight.

Batman spoke first. "We have a lot of questions for you, and I would advise you to answer truthfully."

She should have known this was coming. She should have seen it that day when she was talking to Robin on the island. Should have realized that the moment they captured her, they were going to want to know everything about her.

Where she was from, her world, her past, the X-men, how she got here, her whole life in general.

Shadow sat there, feeling the most weak and desperate than she had felt in a long time as she looked up into the two intimidating figures.

She sighed, as much as she hated opening up and as much as she dreaded at how far into her past they were going to ask about, they were her only chance of figuring out a way to get her back home.


	20. A small digress from the main story

**{*}**

Alight, so this next chapter is a little bunny trail from the main story simply because I need more time to finish up the next chapter and I'm not going to be able to work on it for another week, my summer has been kinda busy lately, it's a lame excuse I know but I hope you like this. It delves a little deeper into a relationship which I find pretty unique and there is a some romance at the end but don't worry there will be plenty of action and Team/Shadow dynamics coming soon!"

**{*}**

Red Arrow glanced at the clock on the wall in the lounge area of the Cave. It was 6:38 and past time for him to go. He turned to leave. "Sorry, guys, but I need to go."

"But Rob hasn't even woken up yet!" Kid Flash glared at him a little and set aside his chips indignantly, wondering where in the world Red Arrow could be going right now.

"Yes, but he's fine." Red Arrow regretted having to this and turned his head slightly to look at them all and continued. "Just tell him that I'm glad he's alright, okay?"

"Must you leave so soon though?" Aqualad, seeing the regret on his friends face, walked up to him.

Staring at the ground with his eyebrows pushed together Red Arrow responded. "Wish I could stay, but I can't."

"Well, if you have to go you have to go." Artemis looked at him with kind eyes as she grabbed Kid Flash's chip bag and ate some of it. Wally dove for the chips only to have Artemis whisk them away and eat a few more.

"Thanks." Red Arrow could barely glance at her and shifted awkwardly before departing. Sometimes things were still awkward between them, well at least it was for him, but it was getting better. _Perhaps this won't be so bad…_

Roy Harper, dressed in his blue shirt and jeans, sped down the street on his motorcycle, going just enough over the speed limit that he wouldn't get caught, yet being able to make the appointment at the same time.

_Can't be late, Can't be late…_he thought over and over again.

He passed the nicer streets until he got deeper into the ghetto. Trash lined the buildings and people dressed in shabby clothes wandered around dark corners and alleys.

Finally he pulled up in front of an old, dilapidated corner building in downtown Star City. With the amount of paint missing the entire walls along with the lingering color, it looked like the entire building was made of Swiss cheese.

_"__Why did we have to meet here? The place looks like a villain's hangout..."_

Roy said as he pulled off his helmet and set it on the handle, then thought better of it and picked it up again. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if it would be impolite and too informal to bring the helmet in, before rolling his eyes.

_"__This is ridiculous! I'm taking it inside. Screw formality!"_

So he tucked it under his arm, with his face set in grim determination, pushed open the door, and hoped that the dirty, orange neon sign reading Jimmy's Chili's wouldn't suddenly fall down and hit him.

With his luck, it probably would happen.

A bell rang, but no one said 'Hello'. In the low lighting of the rotting wooden building, Roy heard a sizzle and smelled the thick layers of burned grease hanging in the air from the grill in the back of the building. In front of the bar filled with holes Roy thought originated from bullets, five tables were scattered about in the middle of a small area and six booths were lined on the far wall under a dusty, cracked mirror.

_"__Here of all places?" He groaned inwardly as he spied the reason he had even come to this rundown restaurant, sitting innocently in the corner booth. _He trudged over and sat across from her, setting his helmet beside him.

"There you are," A sultry voice purred from behind the choices of food such as_Jimmy's Gut Buster Special_, _Chile Cheese Dogs Galore_, and _Chili Cheese Burgers_.

She gently set the menu down and smirked at him. "You're late, and did you have to bring that inside?"

She had dressed casually, wearing blue jeans, sneakers, and a green tank top with a jean jacket.

_This is bad, this is bad, this is a bad idea! Why did I even agree to this, why?_

But resisting the urge to get up and leave he said, "I didn't want it stolen and, I was busy helping a friend."

He then eyed her suspiciously. "You wouldn't know anything about that, though."

"This is a _date,_not an interrogation," She told him and picked up the menu once more, but left it closed so she could still talk to him. "Although, your new playmate has caused quite the stir."

"What do you mean?" Roy leaned forward a little, interested in what Jade could have heard.

"I'm not sure about the details," She ran a finger down the dinner choices, fighting a smile because she knew how bad Roy wanted the information.

She glanced up to see him glare and her and laughed a little. "Alright, Red I'll tell you what I know," She leaned in to. "But you better make it worth my while…"

Roy, unfazed and resolute, told her. "I'll buy dinner."

Jade huffed back into her seat and didn't look at him. "It's a start." She spoke mostly to her herself, than addressed him once more.

"According to my sources this girl has caused quite the flub in the Light's plan. I would even go as far to say that it beats your one little set back when you and your friends freed the Justice League." She leaned forward and crossed her arms on the table, waiting to see his reaction.

Roy kept his face stoic as his memories stirred a little at the mention of what happened during New Years, but he kept his mind focused. "How big of a mess could this be?" He asked after a moment, narrowing his eyes a little at the table as his mind started turning.

"Bigger of a mess than you might think," Jade was delighted to continue and watch as his mind tried to piece it all out.

"Your friend has opened doors that would have taken a few more years for the Light to have accomplished,"

She looked at the menu again, even though she knew what she wanted, and paused for Roy to digest.

He hadn't even opened the menu; he was getting too deep in thought.

_What doors are we talking about here? Batman and Canary mentioned something about inter-dimensional travel and string theory, but…_

It was so mush to think about, and he was feeling tired.

Jade was watching him the whole time, and was a little disappointed that he didn't say anything and before she lost him completely added. "Like I said, I don't know much about the details, but you better keep a close eye on her."

That got his attention as she had hoped and he whipped his up to face her.

"Why are the Shadows going to kill her?"

Jade shook her head slightly and a moment later their waiter, a tall lanky teen with bad acne, came up to take their order.

Both of them ordered water, and Roy scanned the menu fuiriously to try and fond something decent enough to call food

"I'll have the _Gut Burger_," Jade said, glanced at Roy, then ordered for him. "And he'll have the _Chili Cheese Dog_.

"Al'ite," The teen drawled an walked away grabbing the menu from Jade and Roy's hands.

The red haired archer stared at her irately, "What if I didn't want the cheese dog?" He asked her.

"Well you were taking too long." Jade told him and took a sip from her drink.

Roy let it go, _Just this once_, he thought as he wanted to get back on track.

"So have they contracted you to kill her?" He said in a low tone.

"If they are going to 'take care of her'," Jade said stirring up her water with a straw. "They haven't contacted me yet."

"Because your trying to get out." Roy said it more as a statement and Jade sent him a look that said she really didn't want to get into this issue, but replied. "It's not an easy process."

"Ya, I know." Roy dropped the issue, knowing that it couldn't be easy to leave the Shadows and there was a short pause between, broken when Roy murmured. "I don't even know if she's all that stable."

"What do you mean?" Jade stopped playing with the water and looked at him intently, waiting for this new information.

Roy glanced at her and sighed, knowing she would only pry until he gave in. "When we fought once, she went berserk." His eye brows knitted together as he remembered the insane way Shadow had attacked them, very different than the first time.

"It was like she was out to kill us. She was out of control."

"Maybe that's just her fighting style?" Jade offered as a solution with an almost admiring tone.

"No," Roy disclaimed and picked up a fork and started tapping it lightly on the wood. "In a previous fight she was more controlled, definitely had training."

"Interesting…" Jade's curiosity was peaking and she was upset when she saw Roy shake himself out of it and tried to change the subject with, "Let's not talk about work. How was your day?"

After that Jade tried to make small talk, which Roy was not very good at, but eventually he started to warm up.

Both of them hardly noticed when their food arrived because Roy managed to tell a successful joke and Jade wound up spewing water from her nose. He was too busy dying of laughter and getting assailed by napkins to notice the eye roll the waiter gave them.

They had finished eating and Roy was signing the bill when he realized that, he didn't quite want this to end. _But, I got a lot of things I need to do tomorrow. Get a hold of yourself Roy, you can't be with her. _He glanced at her while she took one last drink of her water.

"Say," she set the glass down and sent him a look that he knew meant she was up to something. "Why don't you and I go for a ride?"

"Sorry, my bike doesn't fit two people," Roy lied; he had taken off the second seat in case she asked. He couldn't risk this going any longer.

Jade rolled her eyes. "I _have _my own bike. We'll just drive around a little."

Roy looked at her, unconvinced.

"Come on," Jade leaned in and rested an arm on the table. "What's the harm in _one_ little drive?"

"Alright, fine," Roy stood up, grabbing his helmet. _When did I become so weak?!_

"That's the spirit," Jade said with a sly smile and followed him out the door.

"So where's your bike?" Roy asked when he reached his, knowing he was going toregret this desicion. She didn't answer, so he turned around.

She was gone.

_Crap did she ditch me? Was it a set up?_He reached for his hidden bow on his motorcycle, but, before he grabbed it, a green bike shot out of the darkness of an alley way and sped off.

_Cheshire! _He thought angrily while he ground his teeth together, set on the helmet, swiftly mounted his bike, revved it up, and then sped after her.

She zipped in and out of the streets, passed honking cars and yelling angry drivers.

Roy followed her through every twist and turn, all the while thinking, _She's a maniac and going to get herself killed!_

Eventually he saw her ride into the parking lot of a park, a wooden fence dotted with trees separated it from the asphalt. The sun was setting, coloring the pond in the distance with reds, yellows, and vibrant oranges.

Roy pulled up next to Jade as she set down the bikestand.

He pulled his helmet off, about ready to throw it at her. "You could have gotten us killed!"

"Well, you didn't have to follow." She smirked then made her way into the park.

Roy was soon behind her. "Why did you want to come here anyway?"

They were walking on a path that winded around the trees and disappeared deeper into the land.

"It just seems peaceful." Was her quiet answer.

Her olive skin and thick black hair reflected the rays of the setting sun so…beautifully that Roy had so make sure he stopped himself from staring.

Finally she stopped walking and leaned up against an oak tree, resting her hand on her palm and gazed at the sun, which was almost gone and caused the park to be bathed in shadow.

"You know we won't be able to keep this up much longer," Roy told her.

Jade shut her eyes. "Don't ruin the moment, Red, just live in it."

"You can't just ignore what's going on though. If anyone knew what we're doing, we'd both would be in some serious trouble!" He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Although, shouldn't we at least tell Artemis?"

Jade let out a short laugh. "Heh, do you really think that she would take it well?"

"How would I know? Do you two even talk much?" Roy was a little curious about the two sisters relationship.

Jade turned gracefully around and asked, "What do you think?"

"Right, dumb question for a former member of the Shadows." He stared at the grass and scratched the back of his neck. The sun was gone now and it was hard to see, though a nearby light post helped.

He felt Jade place her hand where his was, the motion startling him so much he jumped slightly.

"What are you doing?" He asked, feeling very uncomfortable at the close proximity, and the feeling of her body trapping him between the tree.

"Living in the moment," She whispered, before placing her lips on his.

He had a split second of wanting to turn and run._This was not right!_

But again, instead of listening to his instincts he grabbed her around the waist and turned her so that her back was against the tree.

Kissing her was the best decision he had made that night.


End file.
